Ocado buys test kits to keep delivery staff on the road
Online retailer says some of the 100,000 pieces of equipment will be made available to NHS workers
Phoebe Southworth, Tony Diver, Charles Hymas and Jack Hardy OCADO has bought 100,000 coronavirus testing kits to keep as many employees as possible in warehouses and on the road delivering food, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Tim Steiner, the online retailer’s CEO, has spent £1.5 million on the tests to ensure front line workers who are negative for Covid-19 can return to work from isolation, a source close to the company has disclosed.
Staff have been working around the clock to meet the surge in demand during the outbreak, with the volume of orders 10 times higher than average.
The Government has announced that hundreds of NHS workers will be tested for coronavirus, starting this weekend, and Ocado has pledged to make their testing kits available to health workers as required.
Boots, the chemist chain, this week tested drive-through virus testing stations in Nottingham for NHS staff.
Seb James, the retailer’s CEO, said: “I am extremely proud Boots is supporting Covid-19 testing for NHS workers. Locations are being defined but will be spread across the UK. They will not, however, be in Boots stores, allowing our colleagues to focus on supporting our customers and patients.”
Supermarkets have been battling to manage the huge number of customers coming to stock up on food, with many using social distancing to ensure they don’t bunch together in queues.
Tesco has been so overwhelmed that it requested a “visible police presence” at the busiest of its UK stores.
The retail giant, which made £1.3billion in profits last year, wrote to chief constables this week asking for officers to provide “community reassurance” as a supplement to their store security. Home Secretary Priti Patel has asked supermarkets to ease pressure on overstretched forces by funding their own security. It is understood no other stores requested a police presence.
A police source said: “What is unhelpful is Tesco are not quite in the position where they are prepared to pay for their own security.”
A Tesco spokesperson confirmed the request, saying it had “faced some challenges.”
Next, TK Maxx and River Island have wound down online operations and are no longer taking orders. Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are focusing on marketing essentials, but are still delivering other items.
Mick Rix, a national organiser for the GMB union, told The Sunday Telegraph: “It’s not just about whether it’s essential or not, it’s about whether people have procedures to deliver safely so they don’t get the virus or pass it on. Drivers have relied on using places like McDonald’s and KFC to wash their hands, but they are now closed.”