Luxottica and Versace put in efforts together to tackle Covid-19 among employees in Italy.
Luxottica and Versace announced recently that Luxottica will share part of its robust COVID-19 prevention, detection and research program in Italy with Versace in the country. A successful element of the program revolves around active surveillance and risk management. The objective is to detect infected individuals, even asymptomatic, through swab testing of risk profiled employees. This program, which was developed in conjunction with the University of Padua, will now be adopted by Versace.
One key aspect of Luxottica’s open preventative model is a swab testing program under the scientific coordination of the Department of Molecular Medicine directed by Professor Andrea Crisanti at the University of Padua. Supported by a significant contribution from the Leonardo Del Vecchio Foundation, the University created a new COVID-19 Laboratory capable of processing up to a maximum of 40,000 diagnostic tests per month.
Now, Luxottica and the University of Padua will expand the research surveillance program to Luxottica’s key partners in Italy, the first of which will be Versace. Versace employees will now have access to a voluntary swab test to detect the presence of coronavirus. This model will help Versace, with whom Luxottica has had a business relationship for over 17 years, to prevent outbreaks within its company and promote a healthy workforce.
The first phase of the project, which started in July 2021 involves the company’s employees from the Milan and Novara offices with a second swab campaign for the fall.
“We are pleased to share our open prevention model and capabilities with our partners in Italy who want to join us including Versace, whose values have always been aligned with ours, in order to pursue the common mission of keeping our organizations safe and healthy. There is no better way to honour our role as a socially responsible company than to invest in our people and by extension, the people who have worked alongside us for years. We are proud of our collaboration with the University of Padua and believe the work we’re doing together to stop the spread of COVID-19 among Italian workers will have an important impact long term“, commented Francesco Milleri, Deputy Chairman – CEO of Luxottica.
“Here at Versace, the safety and well-being of our community have always been the top priority. During this period of a global pandemic, we have always been attentive to the health of our employees, and this is why we have decided to take another step towards preventing COVID- 19 infections. We are proud to partner with Luxottica and collaborate with the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padova to offer all Versace employees the opportunity to undergo swab tests in order to diagnose any possible COVID-19 positive results as fast as possible. Currently, the most efficient and reliable method to identify cases of contagion and possible asymptomatic cases, the swab tests are conducted in the Milan and Novara offices, starting from July, with a second phase for the fall. This is not just a duty towards our employees, but the entire community in order to stop the spread of COVID-19”, added Jonathan Akeroyd, CEO of Versace
