Syngene leads the way in organisational safety with proactive COVID-19 testing for all employees
Mumbai: Syngene, an integrated research, development and manufacturing services company, has taken the lead in proactively conducting free COVID-19 tests for its 5000 employees in Karnataka. As the number of new cases worldwide continues to escalate, the case for increasing the level of testing strengthens and these tests will ensure the highest safety standards for employees.
The free COVID-19 tests are being conducted at the Syngene testing facility in Bangalore that was set-up in April 2020, in order to support the government initiative to increase testing. The main objectives of increased testing are to facilitate faster access to medical care; rapid testing and quarantining of primary contacts; greater protection for vulnerable populations; and, as a result, achieving a reduction in infection transmission. Increased testing has the additional benefit of reducing anxiety for individuals by providing greater certainty about their infection status.
Commenting on the testing program, Dr Mahesh Bhalgat, Chief Operating Officer, Syngene International Ltd. said, “Early implementation of COVID-19 protection measures allowed us to effectively identify symptomatic cases but this proactive testing of all employees means that we can also identify asymptomatic cases. With this information, we can help employees access healthcare quickly and identify primary contacts and isolate them to reduce the transmission of infection. We can also use the data to anticipate the impact of quarantining on our operations and plan effectively from a business continuity perspective.”
As communities and countries experience further waves of infection, it is clear that learning to live with COVID-19 is becoming both a personal and an economic necessity: testing is a powerful tool in helping employees to live more normal lives while continuing to reduce the transmission of the virus.
Today, Syngene is working with more than 50 employers in and around Bangalore including Cipla, Tata Aerospace and Defence (Tata Advanced Materials Ltd., Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., Tata Power SED) Baxter, Aurigene and ELCITA (Electronics City Industrial Township Authority), a representative body of 200-member organisations in the Electronic City area to offer COVID-19 testing to their employees. With many months of experience, the company offers advice on supporting employees, practical COVID measures on site, evidence-based workforce planning and business continuity planning.
Suresh Kumar, Director – RDI Operations, Baxter Innovations and Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. commented, ” Joining hands with Syngene has enabled us to enhance our employees’ safety and keep our workplace safe through proactive screening tests and also to minimize business interruption through fast turnaround of testing in those few instances where our employees got infected from outside work and we had to ensure those who were in close contact in the workplace were safe.”
With the broad range of scientific expertise in relevant disciplines available at Syngene, the company is also working to supply reagents, primers and probes for COVID-19 diagnostic testing to clients. Syngene is also working on research projects related to vaccine development which could represent a longer-term solution for fighting the coronavirus pandemic.