JAKARTA: A increase in coronavirus infections has been reported in Indonesia’s largest coal-producing province of East Kalimantan, with miners among those afflicted, but no damage to coal production has yet been reported, according to a local official. The Southeast Asian country is the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, and prices have been soaring thanks to strong demand from China, South Korea, and Japan.
On Thursday, East Kalimantan on Borneo island recorded 979 coronavirus illnesses, the most outside of Java’s densely populated island. According to health ministry data, the province’s hospital bed occupancy rate had also reached 73% by Wednesday, one of the highest in the country. “COVID-19 has spread throughout East Kalimantan, not just in urban areas,” Andi Muhammad Ishak, a spokesperson for the East Kalimantan COVID-19 task group, told Reuters, adding that infections had been detected in the mining industry. “There are quite a few (affected miners), but it hasn’t reached the point where they have to cease operations,” he said, without elaborating on the location of the infections. The Indonesian central government encouraged regional authorities to take action this week to prevent the type of outbreak that has paralyzed the healthcare system in parts of Java and caused a lockdown.
Company executives stated mine operations at businesses including PT Bumi Resources, the country’s largest coal miner, and PT Bayan Resources, both of which have operations in East Kalimantan, were operating regularly.
“Over the previous year, Bumi has strived to keep production as close to normal as possible,” director Dileep Srivastava stated. “Our volume projection for 2021 remains unchanged at 85 million to 89 million tonnes.” Bumi maintained to follow tight health measures for its staff, including regular screening and immediate contact tracing, according to Srivastava, in order to prevent the virus from spreading to other employees in the event of an epidemic. He also stated that the majority of Bumi staff had been immunized.
Bayan director Jenny Quantero stated that the company was running at “full strength” and that immunizations for all mine workers had begun.
Bayan has maintained its output forecast of 32 million to 34 million tonnes for 2021.
(Fransiska Nangoy contributed reporting, and Ed Davies edited the piece.)/n
