Several workers onboard the PXA-1 offshore platform owned by Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras were reported to feeling ill, which led to more than 45 workers positive to COVID-19.
As Reuters reports, in early May two workers onboard the platform checked into the facility’s infirmary complaining of headaches and fever-like symptoms. After another worker fell ill, 44 of the 45 workers onboard the platform tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to the local union.
Although all workers have recovered, three of them reported that they are deeply embittered because they believe Petrobras failed to take now-standard precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, like testing workers before they went onboard rigs or providing them high-quality masks.
Following, these three workers along with Paolo Valterson, the local union’s health director, questioned why the workers were not evacuated to the nearby city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil until four days after the first ones exhibited symptoms. They were quarantined in a hotel in the city for 15 days.
In the meantime, local prosecutors opened a probe into the incident on the platform.
The news agency adds that two workers informed that once they boarded the platform, they were provided with flimsy masks that required self-assembly, with holes in which inserted elastic bands held the face coverings in place. They said masks provided in subsequent weeks were significantly more elaborate. The workers also described significant movement of employees between platforms, which oilfield operators have generally reduced to limit the potential spread of the coronavirus.
