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Adcock Ingram employee has tested positive for COVID-19

2020/04/24 08:41:43

23 April 2020

Adcock Ingram employee has tested positive for COVID-19

Midrand – An employee in the Adcock Ingram Critical Care manufacturing facility has tested positive for COVID-19, and 50 other employees have undergone testing today, and self-quarantined based on the primary contact trace. The infected employee displayed minor symptoms of the virus on Tuesday 21 April and reported to the on-site clinic. In accordance with protocol, the employee was referred to a private pathology laboratory for testing and was self-quarantined at home. The Company received information this morning, 23 April 2020, that the employee has tested positive for the virus. The employee remains in self-quarantine and will only return to work once cleared by a healthcare professional. We are assessing the employee’s home environment and will move the employee to a separate quarantine location if necessary.

The Critical Care facility’s immediate response has been as follows:

  • The section of the factory in which the employee worked has been shut down;
  • A track and trace in accordance with our protocols is well underway;
  • All primary contacts in the work environment have been tested in accordance with the protocols;
  • All employees in the section of the factory in which the employee worked, and other contacts, if any, have been or will be self-quarantined;
  • Deliveries from Critical Care have been suspended, and only emergency deliveries are taking place. All appropriate hygiene and disinfecting procedures are in place, will continue and have been escalated;
  • The employee shift that arrived for work this morning is in the process of shutting down the entire plant in accordance with our procedures and the entire plant will be on complete standstill as of this evening;
  • A deep-clean of the plant, conducted by a third-party specialist, commenced today, and the plant will be closed for the entire long weekend to ensure the deep-clean is conducted properly;
  • Employees who are able to do so, provided we are satisfied with the result of the deep-clean procedures, will return to the site on Tuesday, 28 April 2020; and
  • Should the Department of Labour or any regulatory body wish to inspect the facility, we will provide our full cooperation. We are confident that our COVID-19 protocols are sufficient and based on best practices.


‘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. 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’ says Colin Sheen, Managing Director: Critical Care.

Adcock Ingram COVID-19 current protocols at all sites:

  1. Adcock Ingram operates three manufacturing sites in South Africa, namely, Wadeville, Clayville and Aeroton, and has an investment in a plant in Bangalore in India. The Company operates a distribution network across South Africa to deliver product to all our customers. As the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical products is highly regulated, Adcock Ingram has always placed great emphasis on health and safety, hygiene and access control across our entire value chain. Since the declaration of a National State of Disaster by President Ramaphosa, we have increased our access and hygiene protocols further, with temperature scanning and screening procedures for all staff and visitors, increased mandatory sanitisation, and use of personal protection equipment and social distancing protocols.
  2. Each Adcock Ingram site (manufacturing and distribution) has a business continuity plan in place detailing all necessary plans and protocols that will be followed should any employee or contractor be suspected of having contracted COVID-19, or tested positive for the virus. These protocols include self-isolation and quarantine procedures for affected staff-members and those they have been in contact with, and temporary closure, deep cleaning, sterilisation and testing of the relevant facility. The structure of the value chain also means that should a manufacturing facility be temporarily shut down; sufficient stock is available to continue supply to our customers over this period. In the event of one of our distribution centres being closed temporarily, critical stock can be sourced from other warehouses in the network.
  3. Adcock Ingram has a COVID-19 Crisis response committee that oversees all of the initiatives mandated in managing COVID-19 and the related regulations and ensuring that we respond in a well-considered, responsible and agile manner.

As a pharmaceutical Company, we are part of an integral healthcare system and the medicine supply chain in South Africa, our priority is the health and safety of our employees, customers and the citizens of the country, and it is therefore our responsibility to contain the spread of any additional infections within the organisation. We remain committed to comply with the regulations and procedures as outlined by, inter alia, the Departments of Health and Labour.

The Company will provide further media updates as information becomes available.

Notes to the Editor

About Adcock Ingram


Adcock Ingram is a leading South African pharmaceutical manufacturer, founded in 1891, and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Adcock Ingram manufactures, markets and distributes a wide range of healthcare products. The Company is a leading supplier to both the private and public sectors in South Africa. As a leading healthcare provider, the Company’s mission is to provide quality products that improve the health and lives of the people in the markets we serve.
www.adcock.com 

Media Contact:

Kavitha Singh
Adcock Ingram Healthcare (Pty) Ltd
Tel: + 27 11 635 0189
Mobile: +79 566 9527
Email: kavitha.singh@adcock.com  [BACK TO ARTICLES]