Oxitec and COVID-19 - Our Response
Managed by Oxitec’s COVID-19 Management Team, Oxitec is actively managing a range of programs and activities for our country operations and staff from 15 countries. Our first goal is the safety and wellbeing of our staff, their families and the Oxitec community, and accordingly we have and will continue to provide a broad range of support to our people. Our second goal is to make Oxitec a source of stability and support for the Oxitec community and our partners as these uncertain times unfold. Our efforts to support the UK Government, non-profit partners, our small business partners, and our own communities will continue wherever we can lend support, expertise, experience or compassion.
Given the importance of our work on technologies to combat disease vectors, and after consultation with governments, we continue to operate our core programs and our core scientific operations continue, although some changes will be made to certain program timelines.
Here is a quick snapshot of what we’ve done so far:
Most importantly, we are prioritizing the safety of our staff, their families, the communities we serve, and our partners; we’ve shifted a majority of our staff who could do their work at home to homeworking arrangements and we split our scientific and production teams into multiple shifts to support distancing efforts;
For those staff who work in our labs, on our field trials, or in our production facilities, we have taken a range of measures to support their efforts and their safety and we continue to assess how we can best support their physical and mental wellbeing; we’ve outfitted our facilities with new health and safety equipment, supplies, and materials, and we’ve carried out a range of training programs to empower our staff to the extent possible to prevent transmission in our unique facilities;
To mitigate financial impact on our staff, all Oxitec staff have been given extra fully-paid leave and extra days specifically for “family care” time; we are committed to supporting all of our employees through this period in every way possible and will continue to assess how best to help them get through this;
We formed a Care Team of volunteer staff to provide support to those Oxitec community members who are sick, self-isolating, or otherwise impacted by this crisis; this team will deliver groceries, supplies, stay connected socially, and provide other forms of support;
As mentioned, we established a COVID crisis management team, comprised of Grey and members of our leadership team, our health and safety teams, program managers, HR and other functions; this group manages on a daily basis the company’s efforts to protect its people, support their families, and support the broader Oxitec community;
We developed a new internal communications portal for all staff and their families specifically to share information, provide updates, solicit feedback, share helpful resources, and generally keep our community strongly connected.
We will continue to assess on a daily basis how to support our community while we prepare to come out of this stronger than ever!
Oxitec Press Inquiries
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