Covid surge: India Inc gears up with vaccination mandates, booster doses, emergency response teams

IT companies and startups in India are taking initial measures to curb Covid spread amid a persistent surge in daily cases.

“A vast majority of employees and their family members across India have been vaccinated and only vaccinated staff are allowed entry to our offices,” said an IBM spokesperson responding to Moneycontrol’s queries.

IBM isn’t alone. From mandating vaccinations, sponsoring booster shots, arranging for oxygen cylinders, and deploying emergency response teams, companies are gearing up for any potential escalation of the situation.

India has 62,293 active cases as of April 25, based on data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Maharashtra has 5,549 active cases, Karnataka has 1,895, and Delhi has 4,995.

Daily new cases over the last week

Companies move fast

According to Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer and head of marketing at Tech Mahindra, the company has emergency backup plans in place.

“We are ensuring that all our employees are safe across locations. We have strict Covid-19 protocols and guidelines for checking air quality, water quality, and regular sanitisation at offices. We are fully geared up with emergency backup plans,” he said.

Soin added that the company has arranged for oxygen cylinders and concentrators for emergencies and partnered with hospitals. The company has also deployed emergency response teams at office sites, he said.

“Nearly 90 percent of our associates have gone through booster doses as well,” Soin told Moneycontrol.

Some employers are taking measures to encourage their staff to get their booster shots if they haven’t yet.

For instance, the Sequoia Capital-backed Growth School is sponsoring the same for all employees who are willing to get the booster shot.

“We do not force anyone, the facility is available for anyone who is open for it,” said Vaibhav Sisinty, founder of the edtech startup which is based out of Bengaluru.

The rise in cases became prominent towards the end of March when daily new infections crossed 1,000. On April 13, the number of new cases in 24 hours crossed the 10,000 mark and has since been hovering around it. This recent spike has been attributed to the Omicron XBB.1.16 variant, a highly infectious version of the coronavirus.

Holding off on mandates

Currently, the edtech firm is focusing on taking measures like deep sanitisation efforts every week and when an employee falls sick. “We are taking care of the basics; encouraging use of masks if unwell, leaves if you notice symptoms,” he said.

The startup has also not mandated vaccinations.

Companies believe employees can only be advised on matters like wearing masks, vaccination, and booster doses as these are matters of ‘personal choice’.

“To be honest, wearing a mask is now passé and since our employees are vaccinated, it may not be wise to force them into something which is a personal choice in the new normal ever since the pandemic,” Saurabh Deep Singla, chief human resource officer of upGrad, told Moneycontrol.

Human resource experts said most companies are exercising caution and dealing with the situation in an individual capacity than issuing company-wide mandates.

“Managers, suo moto, have been advising employees that if you're not feeling well don't come to the office or work from home, or you use a mask, things like that. It is more in an individual capacity that managers have been advising than HRs coming forward and issuing a circular,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, CIEL.

Chandra Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster India, a staffing and employment website that recently rebranded itself into Foundit, agrees. “Companies have started asking employees to stay at home at the slightest symptom but it's only been managed at a very localised, employee level.”

Garisa added that while companies in the Delhi NCR region seem to exercise a bit more caution, most big and small firms across the country are taking a “wait-and-watch” approach as the situation is currently manageable and under control.

However, it must be noted that people also do take rapid tests at home and isolate, and do not necessarily take RT-PCR tests, leading to the possibility that the numbers are higher than what is reported.

Measures by companies to control spread of covid

Remote work still on the table?

According to experts, the measures mentioned above represent the limit of what companies are taking, and they do not appear to be making any changes to their work arrangements at this time.

“Everybody's been discussing but I don't think anyone's taken any concrete measures in terms of altering the working arrangement,” added Garissa.

upGrad’s Singla said, “We haven't seen a significant rise in cases at work and as a practice, we have always encouraged our colleagues to take time off or work from home as needed, with the slightest of discomfort on health or if there are any symptoms of cold or fever.”

He said the company is taking measures to ensure sanitisation in over 25 of its locations, which gives them the confidence to operate smoothly in an offline mode.

Sisinty concurred. “We continue to work completely from the office. We have to start living with it now,” he said.

However, in the event that the situation worsens, companies appear to be open to reconsidering remote work.

“This may mean reverting to ‘work from home’ if government guidance changes or if local clinical and population health data indicate community cases are accelerating significantly again,” IBM added in its statement. The technology firm had started calling its employees back to the office gradually in April last year and its staff currently continues to work on-site.

Also read: Covering commuting costs, allowing casual attire: How companies are trying to get staff back to office

Growth School’s Sisinty also added that the company plans to reassess its stance on remote work if the situation worsens. “We have done that before too,” he said.

Emergency response startup Red Health (formerly StanPlus), told Moneycontrol that with the rising cases, it has launched preventive measures like Covid testing and quarantine programs, and also enhanced its hospital network.

It partners with companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Microsoft, and Capgemini, among others.

“Red.Health is taking note of the increasing Covid cases and pulmo-cardiac issues in top metro cities, particularly Delhi-NCR. As emergency medical care experts, we have deployed a network of trained paramedics and experts to combat these issues and reduce casualties,” Prabhdeep Singh, the CEO, said.