As we close out the first week of April we continue to battle the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19. Each day, worse news about the number of people who are getting sick, and worse, succumbing to the virus dominates the news. The harsh reality is we are far from out of the woods. The next couple of weeks we will continue to see the number of cases and fatalities rise which undoubtedly will increase anxiety around the country. My hope is a national stay at home order will be put in place soon so the entire country is on the same page and we can beat this thing once and for all. At Arroweye, we are preparing ourselves for this to last well into the summer.
Regardless of the actions (or inactions) of the Federal or State Governments, Arroweye is taking this pandemic very seriously. We have continued critical education internally to keep our team members safe and healthy while continuing to support the needs of our clients. In summary, we are doing the following to ensure the health and safety of our team members:
- Round the clock cleaning and disinfecting of our facilities
- Weekly outside service coming in to deep clean and disinfect in addition to round the clock internal cleaning
- Checking the temperature of all team members and any visitors on arrival to our facilities
- Visitors restricted to only critical deliveries or repair/maintenance personnel
- Strict orders that if you are sick, stay home – self isolation/quarantine rules
- Disinfection of packages and other items arriving from the outside
- Strict adherence to CDC and WHO guidelines regarding handwashing and social distancing
In addition, we have made the decision to distribute cloth masks to all team members. Given the CDC and other agencies change of opinion on the benefits of masks, we wanted to get ahead of this and make sure we took every step we can to ensure the health and safety of our team members. The masks will be distributed starting on Monday, 4/6. This is especially important on our manufacturing floor where team members are required to work in closer proximity of each other.
As an essential business we have recently provided letters to all of our suppliers putting them on notice that by extension of our status, they too are considered essential businesses. Needless to say, in order for us to continue to perform our vital role we must have the support of our suppliers and other partners. Thus far we have not seen any disruption to these critical services.
The largest issue we are facing is global logistics. As Governments around the world try to secure needed medical devices and supplies, all of the major carriers are being required to allocate the majority of their global logistics capacity to moving these materials to the countries they are needed in. Weight restrictions and size of shipment limitations coupled with massive surcharges is making moving material around the world very challenging and considerably more expensive. We are working with our logistics partners to mitigate this and will keep you posted as this develops further.
The coming weeks will continue to be filled with challenges. I assure you, Arroweye is doing all it can to mitigate, anticipate and keep our people safe and healthy so that we can continue to support you.
Stay safe and healthy, we are thinking of you and your families,
Peter Krauss
President & CEO
