Nearly 800 workers at Rauma shipyard have been ordered to quarantine following a major coronavirus outbreak at the facility, according to officials in the west coast town.
Around 160 of those workers were quarantined last week, after the outbreak prompted Rauma Marine Construction (RMC) to shut down operations on Friday.
Meanwhile, all of the affected workers will be required to undergo a coronavirus test before being permitted back on the job.
Around 1,000 of the yard's employees have been tested over the past week, with 240 of them testing positive to date. These people have also been quarantined, but none of them have required hospital treatment, according to local authorities.
RMC's CEO Jyrki Heinimaa said that the firm is carefully investigating the situation in cooperation with local health authorities.
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Operations at the shipyard remained at a standstill due to the situation on Monday. Any decisions on reopening would be made together with authorities, Heinimaa said.
Mostly foreign workers
Hannu Nordqvist, Rauma's chief physician, noted that the town's shipyard primarily employs foreign workers.
He said that around 800 of the yard's 1,000 workers were non-Finnish speakers and that efforts to minimise the spread of coronavirus had been hampered by language barriers and cultural differences, as well as the employees' living conditions.
The workers often live in communal accommodations and commute to work together in groups, a situation that increases the likelihood of the virus spreading, Nordqvist said.
"Their living areas were not divided, so there is the possibility that infected individuals exposed and infected others there," Nordqvist said.
Officials in Rauma have demanded that RMC and its subcontractors --of which there are several-- get the situation under control.
According to Nordqvist, many of the yard's workers did not initially realise that coronavirus-related quarantine instructions were legally-binding and that not adhering to them was illegal.
The firm has since updated information about quarantine rules and regulations in the workers' own languages, he noted.
RMC: The situation is being monitored
Meanwhile, shipbuilder RMC said it was making every effort to control the local outbreak, adding that coronavirus testing, as well as the taking of random samples, would continue in the future with the aim of preventing a new outbreak once the yard reopens.
"Going forward, the scheduling of employees' working shifts and breaks will be staggered to minimise contacts at the dock area," the company said.
The majority of the workers who tested positive had been asymptomatic carriers of the virus, RMC said.
"Compliance with the instructions is being closely monitored and violators [of the rules] will be subject to sanctions," the firm said.
Town calls for new rules
At an extraordinary meeting on Sunday evening, the town of Rauma's social and health committee ordered RMC to submit a summary on how it plans to implement required safety measures.
The committee capped the size of crowd gatherings in Rauma to six people for a period of three weeks. Additionally, private events should not be held at all, according to the committee.
Coronavirus infection chains have also been confirmed at two nursing homes in Rauma.
According to local data, there were 10 confirmed coronavirus cases and a total of 83 exposures to the virus at the Saga elder care facility.
Meanwhile, one coronavirus case was confirmed at the town's Linnavuori service home, where 44 people were exposed to a carrier of the virus. So far none of those affected have required hospital care.