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| - Dozens of workers for Vienna's main energy supplier have gone into specially built isolation units to be able to guarantee electricity despite the new coronavirus pandemic, Wien Energie said Friday. Fifty-three workers -- who all underwent medical checks -- are now housed at three waste incineration plants and a power station in the Austrian capital. Within days, fully-fitted portable buildings were set up, provisional power station control centres installed and meeting rooms converted into bedrooms, Wien Energy said in a press release. Karl Ondracek, 55, who has worked at Wien Energie for 35 years, described working from isolation as a "challenge that I have never experienced before", according to the statement. The employees' tasks range from controlling the facilities to maintenance work and when necessary minor repairs, it said. It is not clear how long the 53 employees will stay in isolation. Austria on Friday extended strict measures, including restricting any outside movements, put in place to stem the coronavirus pandemic until April 13. The Alpine nation of almost nine million people has recorded more than 2,300 cases of the novel coronavirus and six deaths. jza/cdw
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