SMC gets workplace ready, starts employee PCR testing

San Miguel Corp. has begun testing its employees for COVID-19 as part of an extensive plan to reopen its workplaces safely and continue providing essential services to the public.

Swabbing is being conducted in key facilities of the company while work to build a dedicated testing lab is ongoing. Construction is already 60 percent complete.

SMC will also strictly implement workplace safety measures – from physical distancing, wearing of protective equipment, frequent hand washing to conducting temperature checks, among others – to prevent the spread of the virus and ensure the safety of its employees.

SMC president and COO Ramon Ang said. “Initially we are looking at only 20 percent of our head office population to report for work. Majority will still continue to workfrom home.”

He added that testing at its other facilities, particularly its food manufacturing plants in Cavite, is also set to start. Throughout the enhanced community quarantine period, teams of stay-in workers have been working around the clock at San Miguel’s food facilities to continue essential food production.

Visayas and Davao testing will be on stream toward the end of May or early June.

Ang said that once its dedicated PCR testing laboratory is up and running, the company would be able to test even more employees and help ensure their safe return to work. PCR testing is the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19, because it is highly reliable and accurate.

Ang also reiterated SMC’s commitment to continue helping government, medical frontliners, local government units, and less-fortunate communities throughout the crisis.

Recently, SMC vowed to support all 17 Metro Manila

LGUs in their efforts to expand COVID-19 testing in their respective areas. SMC is donating swab booths as well as PCR testing kits equivalent to 34,000 tests.

The company is donating an additional three sets of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing machines and RNA machines to key government hospitals. This is on top of five sets of the same machines donated to the Department of Health earlier, along with testing kits equivalent to 20,000 tests. This, according to the DOH, doubled the country’s testing capacity at the time.

Ang is also advocating for accessible testing—in particular, free testing for lower-income families, and affordable testing for everyone else, including MSMEs that have to test their employees.

SMC, whose major business include San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. – made up of San Miguel Foods Inc., San Miguel Brewery Inc., and Ginebra San Miguel Inc. – Petron Corp., SMC Global Power Holdings Inc., and SMC Infrastructure, reported that its Group-wide COVID-19 response has reached P13.08 billion, as of May 12.