Sharjah24 – Reuters: Indonesia's biggest coal-producing province of East Kalimantan has recorded a spike in coronavirus cases, with miners among those infected, but so far there has been no disruption to coal operations, a local official said.
The Southeast Asian country is the world's biggest thermal coal exporter and has been riding a boom in prices powered by strong demand from countries such as China, South Korea and Japan.
East Kalimantan on Borneo island reported 979 coronavirus infections on Thursday, the highest number outside the densely populated island of Java. The hospital bed occupancy ratio in the province had also reached 73% by Wednesday, health ministry data showed, among the highest levels in the country.
"The spread of COVID-19 in East Kalimatan has reached all areas and not just the urban areas," Andi Muhammad Ishak, a spokesperson at the East Kalimantan COVID-19 task force told Reuters, adding infections had been reported in the mining sector.
"There are quite a lot (of miners infected), but it has not reached a point where they have to stop operations," he said, without specifying where the infections occurred.
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