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| - The Russian army has prepared a camp to quarantine workers at a huge Siberian gold mine, the defence ministry said Thursday, after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus. Isolation facilities have been set up for employees at the Olimpiada mine and processing plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia's largest gold mining operation, the ministry said in a statement. Nearly 900 workers tested positive for the coronavirus at the facility in preliminary checks, Pavel Grachev, general director of the Polyus group which operates the mine, said on Monday. He said that around 400 of those workers were then confirmed by health officials to have the infection. The mine employs some 6,000 in total. Colonel Dmitry Pyatunin of the Central Military District said in the statement that the military had set up medical facilities and tents to treat and isolate up to 2,000 people at the site. The defence ministry dispatched a mobile field hospital and 200 servicemen, including 77 doctors and medical specialists, after President Vladimir Putin ordered the military to help deal with the outbreak. Grachev said this week that operations were continuing as usual. "Employees who are not in quarantine continue to fulfil their duties," he said during a meeting with the regional governor. "The fight against infection is very well coordinated." Russia has recorded 317,554 total coronavirus infections, including 2,821 in the Krasnoyarsk region, with 3,099 deaths nationwide. While Russia has the second-highest number of confirmed cases after the United States, officials say the situation is stabilising and the mortality rate is low, so have been allowing industrial workers in many parts of the country to work. jbr/mm/wdb
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