HUL temporarily shuts down Haridwar plant after employees tested COVID-19 positive

FMCG major HUL on Sunday said it has temporarily closed down its Haridwar plant, where several of its employees hav been tested positive for COVID-19.

The company did not disclose the exact number of employees but reports say 33 workers have been tested positive.

"We can confirm that several employees at our Haridwar factory have been diagnosed with Covid-19 a large majority of them being asymptomatic. This came out of an employee Covid-19 testing programme we have activated," HUL said in a statement.

Stating that it is supporting the affected workers their families in every way the company can, HUL further said, "To curtail further spread, we are carrying out contact tracing amongst other employees and workers, and accordingly, advising them to self-isolate and monitor their health conditions."

The company further said, "As an added precaution, we have decided to close the site to ensure deep cleaning and sanitisation before restarting operations."

HUL asserted it has "implemented world-class hygiene, social distancing and sanitisation measures fulfilling the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, and local administration" .

According to a local official, as reported on Saturday, 33 employees of HUL's Hardwar unit of Hindustan Unilever tested positive for COVID-19.

The unit was closed temporarily on the orders of the district magistrate and its premises were thoroughly sanitised.

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The company's management had sent the swab samples of its employees for testing to a private lab.

Twenty people tested positive on Thursday and 13 more on Friday.