KARACHI: The Getz Pharma has announced that its factory and head offices will remain closed from Thursday (today) as the premises will be turned into a screening and testing facility for its employees.

“Fifty-six employees, including senior managers and directors, have been trained in using the FDA-approved testing kits. It is expected that the first wave of 100pc testing will be completed in five days from today and all 1,300 employees of Getz Pharma’s head office and factory premises would have been tested,” the company said in a press release on Wednesday.

The testing, it added, would be an ongoing activity based on an SOP made by the head of community health and medical research.

Those who test negative would be allowed to enter the facility and work in WHO and PIC/s approved manufacturing facility and at the head office, it said. However, those who test positive would be sent home on paid leave.

The Getz Pharma would do aggressive contact tracing, testing within contacts and these employees would be retested after 30 days, and would come back to work only after they recovered and become Covid-19 negative.

In the second step, the families of all workers would be tested, it said.

“Getz Pharma is following South Korea’s example. South Korea increased its testing ability and now has the lowest daily number of cases in the world. I believe that this action, if followed as a model, will reduce the pressure on our government for testing and will protect our employees, their families and the community,” said Khalid Mahmood, the company’s Managing Director and CEO.

Getz Pharma donated these FDA approved kits to the Department of Health, Government of Sindh, and trained the government master trainers on the use and implementation of these testing kits.

The statement said that Getz Pharma was extending an open invitation to reporters from all media houses to visit the site and get free testing by showing their valid press card and NIC.

“Reporters are also on the frontline of this pandemic, risking their lives by providing information to the nation, that is very crucial at this time,” said Dr Wajiha Javed, head of Public Health and Research.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2020