ProPakistani has learned, and confirmed with a company official, that in order to ensure the safety and the well-being of its employees, Jazz is making arrangements to get its employees vaccinated. The development makes Jazz the first telecom company in Pakistan to announce a Covid-19 inoculation drive for its workers.
Keeping in mind the limited availability of vaccines in the country, Jazz says that it will be administrating the vaccination in phases, starting first with the frontline commercial and technical employees, as well as the members of their franchise network.
In the next phase, the vaccines will be provided to the rest of the employees who are working from home. Jazz is also providing employees with the option to get the vaccine shots on their own from a government-approved private lab and have the cost reimbursed.
Vaccination from private medical institutions and commercial supply of the Covid-19 vaccines has begun in Pakistan with citizens rushing to get inoculated. The haste to get vaccinated is especially high among people who need to leave their houses and get to work every morning, risking contraction of the virus on a daily basis.
Jazz is among the very first companies in Pakistan, and the first in Pakistan’s telecom sector, to have taken this significant step for employee safety as the 3rd Covid wave sweeps across the country causing a sharp spike in the country’s infection and death rates.
It’s pertinent to note that Jazz was also the first telco to pledge PKR 1.2 billion towards Covid-19 relief in 2020. The support included several initiatives aimed to limit the negative impact of the pandemic, primarily for the most vulnerable communities.
The #JazzCares philosophy was also extended to employees with the company’s HR and Health & Safety teams providing safety equipment to employees along with care packages to those who contracted the virus.
Moreover, Jazz implemented several initiatives towards the health and the well-being of its staff such as online counseling sessions and workout classes; launch of one-stop digital solutions to deliver e-health services in partnership with Sehat Kahani; medical coverage plans for Covid-19; regular disinfection of offices to ensure the safety of business-critical staff coming in; equipping all workspaces with personal protective gear, travel restrictions with close monitoring, etc.
On 8th April 2021, Pakistan recorded 5,329 new cases of Covid-19 in a single day, marking the highest count of the third wave. Despite a successful head-start in tackling the virus, the situation has since deteriorated owing to overconfidence, lack of monitoring, and delayed decisions.
It is imperative that corporate entities play their part in ensuring that employees and partners are provided the vaccine free of cost, so the burden on the government can be reduced.
