ALROSA said yesterday that production activity at the company's diamond-mining enterprises in Yakutia and the Arkhangelsk region is continuing as usual. However, ALROSA enumerated a number of measures that it has put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

While all business travel out of the country has been cancelled, business trips within Russia are being taken “only if absolutely necessary”. The Company had introduced a 14-day self-isolation rule for employees returning from abroad earlier.

The number of external and internal gatherings has been minimised, and negotiations and meetings have been switched to audio and video conferencing mode. Visitor access to the Company has also been limited.

In line with the need for social distancing, all corporate events, including sporting events, have been postponed till further notice; the Training Centre suspended all offline training activities and began to take a number of courses online.

Some of the other measures are:

• Rapid response committees have been set up in all of the company's structural units, branches and representative offices;
• Measures have been taken to prevent personnel with fever and symptoms of respiratory illness from going to work;
• The HR department has started collecting information on employees and job applicants, including those on rotation, who arrived or plan to arrive from abroad after March 1. Foreign trips of employees’ family members have been noted as well;
• The remote working option has been provided for employees in some divisions, including for those who are healthy but stay on a self-isolation regime;
• Internal communication activity has been enforced, with the establishment of a call-centre to answer frequently asked questions and distribution of recommendations on the prevention of infectious diseases;
• The use of non-personal breathalyzers at industrial sites has been limited;
• ALROSA has procured necessary protective and disinfecting materials and equipment, including sanitisers and disposable gloves, with enforced cleaning and disinfection of all offices, administrative and accommodation premises on a regular basis;
• in collaboration with ALROSA Medical Center all passengers arriving to the Mirny airport are checked for fever, with disinfection of aircrafts and public spaces enforced.

"People’s health and safety is our main value and we unconditionally support measures taken by federal and regional authorities to limit the spread of COVID-19," said CEO of ALROSA Sergey Ivanov. “The spread of the pandemic and the measures implemented around the world to curb it create a situation of global uncertainty. In these circumstances, we are doing our best to protect our employees, customers and residents in the regions where we operate.”

The Company reiterated that in order to support its long-term customers in the current situation, ALROSA in March reduced the limit of mandatory buyout of goods to 50% of contracted volumes with an opportunity to delay buying of up to 10% until the end of May. With travelling restrictions imposed around the world, ALROSA is conducting an online auction of special-sized (over 10.8 carats) diamonds from March 23 to April 6, 2020.