With BC slowly coming out of the Pandemic—the goal is to be back mostly to normal by September—Conuma has released numbers on how the Pandemic has affected them since the pandemic was declared in March of last year.
According to Conuma President John Schadan, the company has had a total of about 560 employees who have self-isolated “out of an abundance of self-caution,” as he puts it, since the start of the pandemic.
“They’ve had symptoms, and we sent them home for 14 days,” says Schadan. “We looked after them in terms of pay and benefits during that time. And the majority, the vast majority of them, it was just out of an abundance of caution.”
That said, the company has had 13 confirmed cases with their employee, as well as two contractors. “We think we think our contact tracing protocols have been key and containing any spread.”
He says Conuma has managed Covid very well. “We’re very pleased and proud of our employees. They are following our protocols. For example, on the buses, where we’ve had the Covid protocols. We’ve been tracking who sits where, so that we know exactly who has been in close contact with any positive cases.”
But it’s not just Schadan who is impressed with the way the mines have handled the health crisis. The chief inspector of mines and Northern Health have also commented on the mine’s contact tracing, says Schadan. “They came out to one of our mines to see how we did it, as well. So again, we are we are very proud.”
One of the other things the mines did was arrange for employees to be vaccinated, in advance of the public roll-out. “Northern Health also designated enough AstraZeneca COVID Shield vaccines for an industrial workplace vaccination program in northern British Columbia,” he says. “Conuma was fortunate enough to become part of that, right out of the gate. We brought in pharmacists, and doctors and nurses to help us administer the vaccine at our work sites.”
Schadan says 159 employees opted for the early vaccine, which was voluntary. “We’re very pleased with that.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.