The better the question
How do you break the infection chain while mending the economy?
Latin American countries have been among the hardest hit by COVID-19. As lockdowns lift, people want a safe return to work.
Keeping the economy going while breaking the infection chain has become one of the most pressing priorities for governments and organizations across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Latin American countries – which have been among the hardest hit by the disease.
With some of the world’s highest levels of infection – the region accounts for five of the world’s top 12 countries by confirmed cases – Latin America is also facing its worst recession on record. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that output in the region will shrink by 8.1% in 2020.
One of those five countries is Colombia, which in September began emerging from a five-month lockdown – one of the world’s longest. With brewing operations across the country, leading drinks manufacturer Bavaria is a major contributor to Colombia’s economy. It has been able to continue brewing under strict social distancing and used an app, developed by EY, to help their people return to work safely and with confidence.
The better the answer
Using technology to enable human enterprise
EY’s Safe Return App enables employers and employees to respond to a fast-changing situation in real time, breaking the infection chain.
EY’s Safe Return App collects employee health data through a set of simple questions.
For Bavaria, this data was fed into a dashboard enabling their command center to monitor workforce health in real time. Employees used the app to generate a QR health passport that could be scanned through a smartphone camera to enable access to Bavaria’s production facilities. Anyone who needed assistance was identified by the command center, who used the app’s tracing function to quickly alert any other app users who had been in contact with them.
In addition, EY’s app enables emergency contacts to be added – so other non-app users can be alerted, further helping to break the contagion chain. Employees can also use the app to keep up to speed with the changing situation – including details of flight restrictions and other COVID-19 updates.
The better the world works
Making the “new normal” near normal
EY’s Safe Return App is helping people return to near-normal working lives – protecting livelihoods, contributing to economic recovery.
As EY Mexico Partner Luis Beltran says, “COVID-19 has altered the world of work in so many ways – changing not just production patterns, but also the social interaction you get in the workplace that’s so important for employee wellbeing, workplace culture and even innovation. The road to economic recovery will be not be easy. But this is a great example of technology empowering people to live their lives as close to normally as possible.”
EY’s Safe Return App is available to clients across Latin America. In helping employees care for their people and respond to a fast-evolving situation in real time, the Safe Return App is getting people back to work and, ultimately, will contribute toward Latin America’s broader economic recovery.