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Public health agency Rospotrebnadzor said on Saturday 82 cases had been confirmed among Polyus employees at the eastern Siberian operation in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 89 laboratory-confirmed cases.

In a translated statement, it said after the first cases at Polyus were reported, the Krasnoyarsk Territory directorate had immediately launched an epidemiological investigation, which was ongoing.

The agency said 94.4% of cases were without clinical manifestations.

Polyus said employees with symptoms were transferred to hospitals for medical care, while COVID-positive workers without symptoms were placed in quarantine in medical facilities at Olimpiada.

"The company is working closely with health experts and with state emergency response services to ensure the virus is contained," it said in a statement on Sunday.

It said the health and safety of Polyus employees remained the company's utmost focus.

"To date, the coronavirus has had only insignificant impact on production or product shipments at the Krasnoyarsk Business Unit," Polyus said.

Olimpiada, including Titimukhtai, had produced 1.39 million ounces of gold in 2019, accounting for about half of the company's gold production.

The Olimpiada operations employ more than 3,300 people.

Russia has almost 210,000 COVID-19 cases, with more than 11,000 new cases confirmed in the past 24 hours, and 1,915 deaths, according to the latest figures yesterday from the World Health Organisation.

Polyus (MCX: PLZL) shares had closed up 1.1% on Friday to 11,973 roubles, near a one-year high of 12,500, capitalising it about 1.6 trillion roubles (US$21 billion).