Nutrien handling COVID-19 outbreaks at Rocanville, Allan mines

Nutrien is working to contain COVID-19 outbreaks at two of its mines.

As of Wednesday, the world’s largest potash producer has outbreaks declared by the Saskatchewan Health Authority at its Rocanville and Allan mines.

Larry Long, the senior vice-president of operations, said the outbreak was declared in Allan on Nov. 22 after two contractors at the mine tested positive for COVID-19.

Those two workers were immediately removed from the site after the positive test results were realized, and contact tracing has revealed no other employees were infected as a result.

One employee tested positive at the Rocanville mine on Nov. 23, with an additional employee working in close proximity on that same shift also testing positive.

Since both instances yielded two positive results, outbreaks were declared.

“There were several people isolated and we have to wait 28 days. If none of them test positive, the outbreak will be done,” Long said.

Twenty-nine workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since “the second wave” arrived in mid-October, according to Long.

Many of those workers have been back to work after their two-week isolation periods ended.

With contact tracers under pressure due to the increasing COVID-19 cases, occupational health nurses on site were granted permission to assist in contact tracing for employees.

“Because the SHA is absolutely swamped with all the cases happening, we’ve been authorized to do that contact tracing,” Long said.

With limited space available at a potash mine, Long said the contact tracing work has become vital to quickly identify close contacts to limit any potential exposure, but it’s not without complications.

“We’ve had 18 to 20 employees that have had to go home that have been identified through contact tracing, but as soon as they tested negative they were allowed to return to work,” Long said of a familiar situation affecting many businesses.

“It had its own challenges where there were employees that had to work in close proximity. If we could avoid that, we obviously did, but there were situations where there’s work that has to be done.”

Aside from limiting the number of people in the elevator cage moving up and down the mine shaft, limiting people in rooms and installing Plexiglas barriers in lunchrooms, staff are now being outfitted with N95 masks and added PPE.

Long couldn’t say how many active cases there are at the mine currently since much of the transmission and all of the testing is happening off site.