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Corporates roll up sleeves to tackle pandemic flu

By Ding Qingfen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-20 09:33

It was a quiet morning in May when Wang Qing arrived at the Lenovo headquarters gate in Shangdi, northern Beijing. To his surprise he saw his fellow workers being held back by corporate security personnel. They were standing in a long queue for temperature testing.

"They took our temperatures one by one. Those with temperatures higher than 38 C were asked to go to the hospital for further examination," Wang, manager, channel sales, Lenovo China Geography, told China Daily.

The temperature test has been a routine one since then. Besides Beijing, every morning, each Lenovo employee in China has to now undergo this test before he starts working.

China has entered the second phase in preventing and controlling H1N1 flu since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it as a pandemic and raised the alert to the highest level late last week.

At the same time, a vigorous campaign has long been under way among companies in China.

Besides the temperature examination, Lenovo also emailed its staff about the latest situation, common knowledge about H1N1, ways to prevent the H1N1 flu, and also distributed gauze masks and thermometers, said Lily Zhu, manager, administrative department, Lenovo.

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"We do whatever we can to help remove the employees doubts and clam their nerves," she said.

Lenovo is not the only firm that is trying to do something about the H1N1 flu. On May 15, employees from BOE Technology Group, China's largest LCD panel maker, got an email from the HR Department. The mail mentioned how to prevent H1N1 flu and the duties that each department has to follow to prevent the epidemic.

"There have been many changes since then. We have been asked to delay or cancel business travel, cancel meetings with visitors from overseas, take proper exercise, avoid crowded places and wash hands frequently," said John Liu, engineer, BOE.

The negative impact on business is there for sure, but "they are must-dos," Liu said.

This is not the first time that China has encountered global pandemics. The SARS outbreak in April 2003 was one of the largest epidemics in recent years. Many companies, especially from service-related industries, have since then gained rich experiences and set up a fairly mature preventive system.

Take Marriott, the leading hotel management group. "We have been revising and improving the system since then," said Chris Yin, director of regional security, Marriott Asia-Pacific.

On the Chinese mainland, Marriott manages 35 hotel properties.

Before the H1N1 broke out, Marriott had a fixed 10-member team called Pandemic Preparedness Task Force responsible for dealing with possible influenzas and viruses, and all Marriott hotels have large quantity of supplies of disinfectants, thermometers and medicines. "Marriott can take effective measures in the shortest period of time when epidemics break out," Yin said.

Compared with North America, China has been less hurt by the flu. And most companies said the impact on their businesses is temporary and not much of a concern now.

Qiao Dongling, director of public relations, Jinjiang Inn Group, said there has been "minor drop" in sales for Jinjiang Inn, China's leading budget hotel group.

But comparatively, the group felt "a bigger blow" during the SARS period.

Ren, a public relations employee from Wu-mart, a major supermarket chain, also echoes similar views. "There has been no decline in head counts at out shops till now," he said.