Authorities in Russia's Yamal-Nenets region quarantine settlement after Covid-19 confirmation
Hundreds of workers on the Gazprom's Medvezhye gas field may have to go under observation as confirmed coronavirus invividuals grow to 12 from two in just two days
Authorities of the Yamal-Nenets region in West Siberia have ordered to fully shut a settlement near one of Gazprom’s core gas producing fields, Medvezhye, after confirming first cases of novel coronavirus Covid-19 in this remote area in Russia.
All inbound and outbound traffic from the settlement of Pangody has been banned from early hours of Friday, after a number of confirmed Covid-19 infections rose to 12 people from two people in just first two days of April.
Authorities said that the settlement has sufficient reserves of food staples and first aid medicines for people who have been ordered to stay at their homes for the next two weeks.
The first two individuals with Covid-19 have been reported as colleagues who work at a local gas producing subsidiary of state controlled monopoly Gazprom.
One of them was reportedly investigated by police for failing to disclose his earlier trip to another region of Russia.
Authorities said that all other confirmed cases are people who have been in contact with the suspect.
In total, the suspect and his colleague may have had encountered with about 250 co-workers, authorities have established.
On Thursday, operator Gazprom dobycha Nadym urgently prohibited personnel on facilities at the Medvezhye field to leave the area, at the same time restricting inbound travel to the field.
Reports in the Yamal-Nenets regional capital of Salekhard said that companies and residents have petitioned governor Dmitry Artyukhov to place the whole huge region under quarantine, prohibiting all travel in and out the region, and ordering residents not to go far from their homes until further notice.
The Yamal-Nenets region is the core gas and LNG producing province of Russia, hosting assets operated by Gazprom, oil producers Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Lukoil and largest gas independent Novatek. It has 136 oil and gas fields that are important to the country, wrote an author of the petition to the governor.
Almost all operators have earlier told workers that they will have to stay at the fields and extend their shift to between two and three months from usual term of one month to reduce the risk of bringing Covid-19 to oil and gas production facilities.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin permitted governors to decide themselves upon levels of quarantine measures in the regions that they manage.
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