COVID-19: Update on SOS International’s State of Preparedness

Updated 4 March 2020

In order to reduce the risk of infection among employees, SOS International raised its state of preparedness last week based on the recent development of COVID-19, which reached the Nordic countries.

SOS International has a preparedness and crisis set-up that ensures that the vital parts of operations - including the alarm centres - at all times continues, even if infection occurs among the employees. The state of preparedness was upgraded after the authorities changed the risk assessment from moderate to high.

All contingency plans have been reviewed and a number of extra practical measures have now been taken to reduce the risk of infection among employees.

The stricter measures mean, among other things, that

• all employees who have been travelling in the authority appointed high risk areas are quarantined for two weeks
• all employees who have been traveling in areas with detected infection are screened to assess whether they can come to work.
• all not highly prioritised business trips are cancelled so far.
• As a main rule, all meetings with external parties, including customers, are held as telephone or video conference
• all visitors to SOS International’s premises must complete and sign a Visitor Health Declaration before entry.
• The travel alarm centre in Copenhagen is physically divided into two locations instead of one.

- We have increased our measures in relation to ensuring operations if a larger number of our employees are infected. Our role is, among other things, to help people travelling abroad. Therefore, it is essential for us to uphold the operation of our alarm centre, says Niels Krag Printz, CEO of SOS International.

In relation to other operations and case management for customers, there are currently. no changes. Operations are running as usual, and SOS International is in close dialogue with both authorities and partners in the organisation's international network.

SOS International keeps updated on instructions from Nordic authorities and local authorities at the destinations where there are special circumstances.

Operations follow the instructions from authorities at all times and the applicable conditions from the companies.

Read more: COVID-19: Updates