The production at Barapukuria Coal Mine will remain suspended for 15 more days as another 16 workers –six of them Chinese - tested positive for Covid-19, authorities said on Monday.

The production at the state-owned mine was first suspended on Saturday when 90 workers, including 50 Chinese, contracted the virus.

The suspension came for the safety of other unaffected workers at the mine, said Saiful Islam Sarkar, manager at the mine.

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He said the virus forced home isolation of 450 local and 300 Chinese workers of the mine, have been asked to remain in home isolation.

In such situation, the authorities concerned suspended coal extraction in the 1306 phase and 1041 phase respectively. The authorities expected that the production will likely to resume after 15 days.

Also read: Coal production suspended as 90 mine workers contract Covid in Dinajpur

The coal extraction from the 1306 phase started on July 26 on a trial basis and till Friday, "we were able to produce 5,000 metric tonnes of coal,” said Saiful.

However, 40,000 metric tonnes of coal are in stock, which will be used for power generation, he said.