Companies have chosen safety: over 40,000 COVID-19 tests were performed in 2020, to the benefit of employees and for continuous business operations

Mihai-Alexandru Cristea 01/04/2021 | 17:26

In 2020, in the context of the pandemic, Romanian companies chose to protect the health of their employees through medical subscriptions and periodic testing. REGINA MARIA data show that approximately 700 companies in its portfolio have performed over 40,000 tests for the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 for the comfort and safety of over 36,000 employees throughout the country, both in the production and office areas.

 

About 80% of the tests performed by companies in less than a year were RT-PCR tests, followed by immunological tests of antibodies and rapid antigen tests. The diagnosis was “detectable” in approximately 10% of the RT-PCR tests, which means it indicated the presence of COVID-19. The testing helped companies to identify and eliminate possible outbreaks in time and to continue their economic activity, even in a state of emergency.

“The partnerships with the companies in our portfolio are long-standing and valuable also because we have always managed to work together to quickly adapt to their everyday needs and realities. This partnership became even stronger during the pandemic, when we have mobilized to offer extensive testing campaigns, we digitized the Occupational Medicine service, we launched an online shop where subscribers can upgrade or buy family subscriptions, and we launched a series of webinars and wellbeing programs, such as Corporate Sano.

Along with COVID-19 testing, which required considerable efforts on our part – dedicated teams and flows, increase of the capacity up to 9 times – we stood by our partners through a number of other benefits that helped them reduce the challenges posed by the pandemic. REGINA MARIA experts have always stood by the companies, offering consultancy and audit to assess the need for testing in each organization and the rigorous implementation of prevention measures. Along with medical subscriptions and screening packages, we believe that testing will continue to be a benefit offered to employees out of the desire to protect them and help them continue their activity safely”, says Andreea Minuță, Subscriptions Division Director, REGINA MARIA Healthcare Network.

Most of the companies that have chosen testing as a method of prevention and safety are from Bucharest, Brașov, Constanța, Timișoara. Moreover, the companies with the highest volume of COVID-19 tests are from industries such as financial-banking, IT, HoReCa, transport (automotive, marine), energy, gas and electricity, retail, telecom, food industry, media and advertising, constructions, pharmaceutical industry or education (schools and educational institutions).

“The continuous testing of our colleagues has become an essential activity over the last year, given that BCR kept its 370 national branches and its banking operations permanently open throughout this period. Our colleagues have always been at the forefront of our efforts to remain available to our customers, which, in addition to ensuring protective measures, has made it critical to ensure rapid, massive and recurring testing. In this context, we would like to thank our partners from Regina Maria for supporting us with a personalized, simple and fast programming and testing process, especially during the peak periods of the pandemic, when the pressure of requests was high”, said Ileana Refat, Head of Labor Relations Department, Human Resources Department, Banca Comercială Română.

In addition, the testing behavior of the companies has been different. Some of the companies have applied this screening method for all staff, the rest testing their employees only in specific situations – confirmation of infection, testing direct contacts, testing management in case of essential meetings or travels abroad.

Testing COVID-19 as a method of prevention and protection of the health of employees and the business will continue to be an extra-salary benefit offered by employers along with medical subscriptions, wellbeing courses, professional development and education programs.

According to studies, 80% of companies will reimburse employees for epidemiological testing and/or vaccination. The benefit, which was recently introduced into the Fiscal Code, is preferred by both companies and employees and is estimated to continue to be at the top of extra-salary facilities in 2021.

To be closer to its partners, REGINA MARIA Healthcare Network, the leader of private medical services in Romania, has designed several types of testing packages, both for detecting and diagnosing COVID-19 (RT-PCR tests, rapid antigen tests) and for the assessing the immunity level after vaccination or COVID-19 post-infection (serology antibody tests). These include harvesting by a medical team at the company’s headquarters and processing some of the tests in REGINA MARIA laboratories.

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