In light of the rising local pandemic cases, Eastern Group is planning to implement the “Group-Wide Employee PCR Testing Program” tomorrow (6/11), in line with the “Safe Enterprise Rapid Screening Program” called for by Mayor Hou Yu-Ih of the New Taipei City Government. President Gary Wang of Eastern Group said that as rapid screening still poses a concern for presenting false negative or false positive results, in order to protect the safety of employees, it has been decided that PCR testing will be arranged directly for the employees, while the full cost of testing will be borne by the subsidiaries of the Group. This move is a first in the corporate sector.

There are 5000 Eastern Group employees in Taiwan. ETMall headquarters is located in Zhonghe, New Taipei City. At the beginning of the pandemic, various pandemic prevention measures were already implemented, including working from home, shift rotations, and suspension of visitor appointments. To protect the safety of employees, around one-third of employees are working from home. In the face of the severe pandemic situation, Eastern Group is actively cooperating with the government. PCR testing will be conducted onsite by the medical staff of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital Taoyuan Branch. The assessment of employees’ risk level will be based on the nature of their work, age, office location, and place of residence. The first-line service personnel, including ETtoday reporters, Mama Bear Shopping platform logistics and home delivery workers, Natural Beauty therapists, and ETtoday Pets employees, as well as employees living with young children and the elderly at home, will all be included on the priority list. In addition, Eckare distributors, partner vendors of ETMall, and employees’ family members can participate in the screening at their own expense. We are currently arranging the list of employees of each subsidiary to undergo the testing and the appointment schedule.

A screening station will be set up in the square in front of the ETMall headquarters from Friday, June 11. It is estimated that PCR testing for 5,000 employees will be completed within four days. If a test is positive, a notification will be made in accordance with the prescribed procedure and admission to the Taoyuan Branch of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital will be arranged immediately for treatment. To safeguard all employees, Eastern Group has made many inquiries and is particularly grateful to the New Taipei City Government and Superintendent Lu Shing-Hwa of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital Taoyuan Branch, for their selfless assistance and support in providing the complete range of medical services.

In the face of the pandemic, Eastern Group is actively implementing a high-standard corporate pandemic prevention mechanism in the hopes of supporting the government’s pandemic prevention efforts through practical actions by reducing the workload of medical personnel, and working together with the whole nation to overcome the pandemic.