COVID-19/Coronavirus Update

March 18th 2020

Queensgate News

7 April 2020 Update

To: All Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Visitors and Contractors

General

In light of the global spread of the COVID-19, Prior Scientific/Queensgate is providing this updated notice to outline the policy implemented to prevent the spread of the virus. Prior Scientific/Queensgate continuously monitors government and health organization recommendations to ensure that we follow all government requirements needed to protect our employees and business interests. As the situation continues to develop, we will update these precautionary measures as necessary. All employees are encouraged to review the awareness guidelines about COVID 19. These guidelines (for employees) have been sent to all employees.

Essential Business

Our highest priority is protecting the health and safety of our employees and their families. Many of Prior Scientific/Queensgate’s businesses are considered essential by the national governments in countries where we operate. As such, our intent is to establish and maintain a safe workplace and guidelines that allow operations associated with these essential businesses to continue.

Travel

The corporate policy for COVID 19 is following the highest level of alert of the governments in which we have a legal entity and discretion on Prior Scientific/Queensgate’s part based on other information we have received.

Current guidelines are for only essential travel to take place. As there is currently no need for employees to travel other than to their normal place of work it is Prior Scientific/Queensgate’s recommendation that this is the only travel to be done by any of its employees. If this changes you will need to abide by the following guidelines.

For any travel, you must:

1. Receive approval from a director.

2. Follow in-country protocols by local authorities.

3. Follow home and host country/local protocols as defined by local authorities.

If a country has increased the level of threat independently, employees should follow the local government rules and regulations and there may be more restrictions put in place by Prior Scientific.

When travel is restricted, meetings or business discussions are to be conducted online or by phone.

When travelling either by air or in public transportation please try to keep your distance from other travelers when possible. If available, we recommend that you carry a mask in your carry on just in case the traveler next to you shows signs of respiratory illness.

Some of Prior Scientific/Queensgate’s offices may have more stringent policies in effect that may prohibit visitors from certain countries from accessing the location, please confirm in advance with the colleagues you are visiting that access will be granted and make sure you are familiar with their policies regarding work on-site and entry to the building.

Personal Travel

You may have made or are considering personal domestic and/or international travel. The same rules that apply to business travel apply to personal travel with the exception of the need to get pre-approval for the trip. Please notify a director if you are travelling domestic or internationally.

Re-Entering a Prior Scientific/Queensgate facility after Travel (Business and Personal):

We make an effort to keep our on-site employees safe. Therefore, if you were in a location or used public transportation that violated the practice of safe social distancing please do not enter a Prior Scientific/Queensgate facility. Contact your manager and HR in order to establish when you can safely re-enter a Prior Scientific facility.

Event and Meeting Participation

The following guidelines regarding participation in business events and meetings apply to all countries.

Travel for internal meetings – Not permitted.

Participation in internal meetings – preferred by electronic means only, else strictly following

social distancing guideline

Participation in external industry events – Not permitted.

Participation in business critical events – Subject to director approval.

Hygiene

As always, we ask that all employees, regardless of location, follow strict hygiene practices. According to medical professionals globally, hand washing is one of the most effective ways to prevent respiratory infections. Washing with either alcohol (60%) or soap/water (20+ seconds) are effective.

Symptoms

If you have a fever or respiratory infection or are generally unwell, you should seek medical attention, stay out of work until you recover, and contact your manager and/or HR to let them know that you will be out of work and prior to your return to work.

We will continue to keep you updated with the latest information available. You are also encouraged to check the World Health Organization website and local government health organization.

Entry to Prior Scientific/Queensgate Facilities:

Prior Scientific/Queensgates facilities have status levels that impact employees and visitors entering the building.

By Visitors: Not permitted except for essential maintenance/breakdown

By Employees: For permitted worker who cannot work remotely or to allow the facility to remain open or by Director approval

Employees who test positive for COVID-19:

Different countries have different guidelines for people who test positive for COVID-19 and when it is safe for them to be around other people. Please follow the following guidelines:

• Employee should follow instructions from medical doctor and/or local health authorities.

• Employee should notify local HR.

• Where testing is available employees may return to work on-site once they have been tested again and receive a negative result.

• Where follow-up or repeat testing may not be available, employees who test positive should remain out of the office until 14 days from when they were first tested or at least 72 hours after resolution of all symptoms, whichever is later. “Resolution of symptoms” means no fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat or related symptoms. These symptoms must resolve without the aid of fever-reducing or other symptom- altering medicines (such as cough suppressants).

We still ask that you receive HR approval prior to re-entering a Prior Scientific/Queensgate facility.

25 March 2020 Update

To All of our Valued Customers:

Prior Scientific is committed to working with essential businesses that are developing and manufacturing products for the prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and screening to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We are currently populating a list of customers who are considered essential so that we can prioritize our production output.

If your business has been deemed “essential” by your local, state, or national government, please email us at info@prior.com along with any supporting documents you may have.  We have already received letters from some of our customers stating that we are essential and are currently prioritizing production for them.

We are continuing to take all advised precautions regarding social distancing, sanitizing, and hand washing at our facilities that require staff to be on site to manufacture these key products.

18 March 2020 Update

Prior Scientific would like to make all our stakeholders aware of the measures we are making around COVID-19 known as “Coronavirus”. This affects not only our employees, but impacts on all our stakeholders including customers, suppliers, markets, and the communities in which we operate across the globe.

Our global staff are fully aware and updated regularly on the impact the virus is having and are following the advice of the world, national and regional governments in an attempt to reduce the spread of this disease.

To date we have:

  • Provided additional advise and hygiene facilities;
  • Restricting non-essential 3rd parties on our sites;
  • Restricted all travel by employees;
  • Some employees working remotely;
  • Advised all staff of the symptoms of Coronavirus;
  • Advised all staff showing symptoms to self-isolate and to seek medical advice as per their national/regional government guidelines.
  • Adjusting work patterns to minimize interactions

At our UK and other facilities we are in the process of identifying and providing staff who can work remotely with the resources to do so.

However, as we are a manufacturer, some roles cannot be completed remotely and we are doing all in our power to maintain a safe working environment for those staff who will continue to work at our facilities, including:

  • Changing working patterns to minimise social interaction;
  • Expanding working areas to give individuals social distance;
  • Additional cleaning of the sites to reduce contaminants;
  • Restricting areas of the business to groups of employees.

These are unprecedented times and we will be doing our utmost to maintain a normal supply to our customers, while understanding the difficulties our suppliers face and protecting our employees.

We are vigorously working to protect the delivery of services and products to our customers.  We will fully support our customers as we adapt to the changing circumstances.  Our customer service team can help provide more insight if you have questions about specific orders. Support is available through your existing contact at Prior Scientific or via phone or email.  For those in customer support functions at Prior Scientific who will not be in the office, we have supplied internet phones and computers so that they can work remotely and respond to your inquiries. Our production and shipping teams are continuing to work and we can still ship and receive products.

For circumstances out of our control including full or partial closure of our manufacturing facilities, we will follow our Business Continuity Plan.

We wish all of our stakeholders the very best of health while we get through this situation.

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