View of the headquarters of the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in west London.
Ben Stencil | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – UK-based drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has asked Britain to shut down the Covid-19 contact-tracing application when about 2,500 employees are at work.
The pharmaceutical giant, which is working on a coronavirus vaccine, ordered staff at research and development laboratories and manufacturing facilities to turn off the Bluetooth contact-tracing facility built into the official Covid-19 application for England and Wales.
The first news came on Tuesday by The Guardian newspaper.
The application is seen as an integral part of the government’s testing and trace program. It sends a warning to users if they have spent more than 15 minutes within 2 meters of having tested positive for coronavirus.
GSK, which employs around 16,000 people across the UK, said the safety of its employees is the company’s top priority, adding that it has “strict protective measures” at all its sites.
“Our pharmaceutical laboratories and manufacturing plants have a highly controlled environment and operate in accordance with the supreme Covid-19 safety and security protocol set by the government,” a GSK spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CNBC.
“Employees who choose to download the app should continue to use it normally when they are not working in a controlled, covid-safe environment.”
The firm said its approach follows the government’s advice on how to use the app, developed by the National Health Service and downloaded by 16 million people.
All GSK staff were asked to keep a distance of two meters while working and some were also provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and glass ields for later work.
The Department of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC on Wednesday, but a spokesman told The Guardian: “We want as many people as possible to download and use the app as much as possible. All the time except certain scenes. “
G.S.K. It is not the only company that has reservations about the contact-tracing feature in the NHS application.
Rix Petroleum, which is located in Hull, the northeastern English port city, told BBC News that it had asked employees to turn off Bluetooth in their phones. Rory Clark, the company’s managing director, called the contact-tracing facility a “blunt weapon.”
“A large number of people are not sick, they will be discharged – or it will be suggested that they be closed for 14 days,” he said.
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