JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works, the largest single location steel manufacturing facility of JSW Steel Ltd located in Ballari, Karnataka has brought the Covid-19 infection among employees under control with zero new cases in recent times.
Dr Vinod Nowal, Deputy Managing Director of JSW Steel Ltd commended the commitment shown by the Plant Management, Employees and Jindal Sanjeevani Hospital, “We have successfully managed to flatten the Covid-19 infection curve at our plant in Ballari with no new cases reported in the recent past. Bringing the infection under control is an outcome of concerted efforts and commitment of the Leadership Team and every employee at JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works plant during the last few months. At the same time, we continue to stay alert as the fight against coronavirus has not ended. JSW Steel will continue to keep a close vigil and follow strict safety guidelines issued by the Government to keep our employees and communities safe.”
During the last few months, JSW Steel undertook several strong measures to ensure safety of its employees and the local community at its manufacturing facility in Ballari:
1. Converted its Jindal Sanjeevani Hospital and OP Jindal Training Centre at Ballari into full-fledged Covid-19 Care Centres.
2. Identified the most critical workforce to keep the steel plant operational and ensured safety of all other employees through work from home facility.
3. Constituted multiple governance committees headed by senior JSW officials to ensure complete adherence to health and safety guidelines including social distancing to control or minimize spread of infection.
4. A “Fever Centre” was set up within the steel plant’s premises to check and detect early symptoms of ILI (influenza-like illness) or SARI (severe acute respiratory infection). A team of doctors and paramedics were made available round-the-clock at the Fever Centre.
5. Corona Corner, a24x7 helpdesk, was set up to assist employees and their family members with Covid-19 related information and critical medical assistance through mobile and email including immediate hospitalization and support to employees infected with the novel coronavirus and ensuring quarantine of those at risk.
6. Undertook one of India’s largest corporate testing programmes to ensure Covid-19 testing of all employees to evaluate and contain infection risks.
7. JSW Steel provided online Covid-19 counselling through the “We Care” employee assistance programme. Regular Covid-19 awareness sessions were conducted for employees and their families, contractors, unskilled staff, township residents and others.
8. Support was extended to local communities to contain the risk of infection outbreak. The Community Health Monitoring Project Team of JSW Foundation conducted door-to-door basic screening to record Covid-19 related symptoms of 22,000 people in 5,100 households across seven surrounding villages.
JSW Steel continues to undertake stringent safety measures to keep its plants and townships safe through regular sanitization of offices, shop floors, company vehicles, buses and common areas like ATMs at regular intervals. Thermal Screening at entry gates and use of face masks are mandatory. All employees and their family members are encouraged to download the AarogyaSetu app to stay informed on Covid-19 risks.
