Adcock Ingram said today, an employee at its critical care manufacturing facility has tested positive for COVID-19 and that a section in which the employee worked has been closed.
The company has also identified 50 other employees who had come into contact with the employee and have been self-quarantined – waiting for their results.
The JSE-listed company said deep-clean of the plant, conducted by a third-party specialist, commenced yesterday, and the plant will be closed for the entire long weekend to ensure the deep-clean is conducted properly and that employees will be able to resume work on Tuesday, provided the company is satisfied with the result of the deep-clean procedures.
The company said in a statement said the infected employee displayed minor symptoms of the virus on Tuesday and reported to the on-site clinic.
Colin Sheen, managing director for the Critical Care unit at Adcock, said the employee remains in self-quarantine and will only return to work once cleared by a healthcare professional and the company was assessing the employee’s home environment and will move the employee to a separate quarantine location if necessary.
“The Company places the safety and well-being of our workforce as our highest priority, and we continue to monitor the situation carefully to ensure that the infection is contained,” Sheen said.
“We assure the public and medical practitioners that products manufactured at, and distributed from, the Aeroton plant are safe for use. There is no risk of products being contaminated with the coronavirus due to the long mandatory quarantine period products are subjected to while quality control procedures are conducted on manufactured batches.”
Adcock said it was confident that it had put sufficient measures to ensure the safety of its workers at its facilities and that it would provide full cooperation should the Department of Labour or any regulatory body wish to inspect the facility.
