TRG call centre refuses closure despite three positive COVID-19 cases

LAHORE: Lahore-based Digital Globe Services (DGS) has opted not to shut its Lahore office despite at least three positive cases of COVID-19.

According to details, on April 21, an employee of the company, who had been a regular to the office, was tested positive for COVID-19 after she developed fever and went into isolation.

After reports that one of the employees had tested positive, the company carried out tests of the entire team of around 15-20 people, following which the results of two more employees came out positive.

As the COVID-19 hit Pakistan and the country went into an all-out lockdown, businesses across the country had closed their offices and switched to “work-from-home” to maintain social distancing and contain the virus breakout.

DGS, which is a call centre business of The Resource Group (TRG), which deals with clients in the United States (US), remained open during the lockdown mainly on government directives to keep “call centre businesses with limited public dealings” operational during the lockdown period.

Sources told this scribe that the company exercises extraordinary caution at work to keep the workplace safe for workers, but despite the positive cases, the DGS management “has opted not to shut the office or switch to work-from-home, and that too without thorough testing of the workforce that runs in hundreds of employees”.

They informed that only the team members of the first victim along with a handful of others suspected to have come in contact with positive patients have been asked to observe quarantine at home.

A company representative denied any knowledge of the positive cases, even though one of the employees who had tested positive for COVID-19 had confirmed about the authenticity of the case.