As the government eases up community quarantine restrictions, Globe Telecom has started the weekly rapid antibody testing of all its frontliners to ensure that both its workforce and stakeholders are protected from COVID-19 spread and infection.
At least 15 percent of the company’s over 8,000 employees have been working in the frontline as part of the critical skeletal force since the beginning of the Enhanced Community Quarantine in mid-March.
An additional 5 percent are returning to their posts as Globe starts reopening its stores and fielding more personnel for network build, expansion, and maintenance.
“The safety of our employees and the public are of paramount importance to us. That is why we have decided to do mass testing of our frontline workers on a weekly basis using the rapid antibody testing kits,” said Renato Jiao, Globe Chief Human Resource Officer.
“If some sort of positivity appears in that particular test, then we are going to do a more extensive test,” he added.
Globe is working in close coordination with Ayala Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (AC Health) in screening its own employees and those of its service contractors.
The test kits, which passed the high standards set by AC Health, use a person’s blood sample to measure antibodies, which are the body’s response in fighting an infection. Results can be released in half an hour.
The move is also in support of the efforts by Task Force T3 (Test, Trace, Treat) to ramp up testing operations and healthcare capacity in the country to save lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.
Task Force T3, which AC Health is part of, is a public-private partnership created to help the government locate, isolate and care for COVID-19 carriers to keep communities safe and manage transmission of the virus.
Aside from rapid testing, Globe will continue to observe strict health protocols as mandated by government guidelines upon those who are returning to work.