Terra Moretti Group reopening and giving blood tests to all Group employees

Italy is getting ready to open up again, and is now entering into “Phase 2”, which Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte launched just yesterday evening. He presented the timelines and guidelines that starting on May 4th will accompany relaxing the rules and measures of the lockdown, which has been in effect for almost two months now. Businesses have the priority and the primary necessity to secure their workplaces and ensure the safety of their employees. First of all, they will have to follow the “Shared protocol for the regulation of measures to combat and contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the workplace”, which was updated on April 24th by the Minister of Economy, the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, the Minister of Economic Development and the Minister of Health. However, there are companies that are ready to do even more. For instance, Terra Moretti Holding, the Group led by Vittorio Moretti, headed by Moretti Costruzioni e More, Terra Moretti Wine (Tenuta La Badiola, Bellavista, Contadi Castaldi, Petra, Sella & Mosca and Teruzzi) and Terra Moretti Resorts, which a few days ago, in an extraordinary and rare move for the Italian wine-growing business, took a step beyond the protocol and activated its own health protocol to carry out on all its collaborators - validated and authorized capillary blood chromatographic tests to measure IgM and IgG antibodies (immunoglobulin) that are produced in cases of Covid-19 infection.
The aim of activating the testing is to epidemiologically evaluate Terra Moretti Group’s entire workforce and then render the updated “photograph” of its collaborators immunological responses. The results will then be monitored over time to obtain a dynamic clinical and laboratory evaluation. The Moretti family has, for many years now, established a comprehensive and attentive welfare policy for its employees; therefore, the family totally supported this screening measure, which was made possible through the collaboration with the medical analysis laboratory of L’Albereta’s Spa – Terra Moretti Group’s Relais & Chateaux, headed by Carmen Moretti - conducted by its medical director, Dr. GianPaolo Lorini. During the past several weeks of the Coronavirus emergency there have been many initiatives aimed at protecting the safety and health of collaborators in all the areas of the Group (construction, wine and hotels), by preventing the risk of contamination and preparing opportune interventions in the event of cases of infection. Some of its companies or sectors have suspended their business following the provisions of the Italian government’s decrees, transforming them, where possible, into smart-working mode, other areas (wineries) have continued their activities (such as taking care of the vineyard or transporting and delivering shipments), under the supervision of Francesca Moretti.
The measures the Terra Moretti Holding have implemented involve also the creation of a dedicated task force and constant health surveillance, maintenance of continuous and immediate communication with employees also through new digital modes, the implementation of rigid health protocols, which include measuring the body temperature upon entering the premises of the company, social distancing, providing individual protective equipment, sanitizing the workplace, implementing different time shifts and distributing space in the workplace, as well as stipulating insurance coverage dedicated to cases of Covid-19 infection, consisting in an indemnity in case of hospitalization caused by an infection, convalescence allowance and a post-hospitalization assistance package to better manage recovery and family management.
The group is now discussing strategies for the hospitality areas of ​​its 6 wineries, which were the first to go on lockdown, including the revision of the guided tour management protocols. The Group is already contemplating the use of special radio-guides produced entirely in-house, in Italy, and including mono-use earphones. The hospitality areas will definitely be one of the last activities to reopen, and the considerations are the same as those under examination for restaurants and museums. In the meantime, the operational division of Franciacorta (Bellavista and Contadi Castaldi), which had already provided a training school in the countryside for its collaborators employed in wine tourism, it literally put the hospitality workers into the fields to carry out the delicate work of selecting the buds in the vineyard.
“We must begin gradually”, said Vittorio Moretti, president and founder of the Terra Moretti group, “and we must primarily pay very close attention to safety, but also to the importance of safeguarding jobs. We are working on it, together with everyone’s help, and we are sure that together we will find solutions. It is a game that will be won in the medium to long term, and it will require tenacity and concentration as well as patience and creativity”.