The current period is a challenge for all of us. As Covid-19 fighters, we are at the forefront when it comes to protecting people’s health. And even though the measures taken by the government have been gradually relaxed since the beginning of May – as has our own crisis mode – it is still a long way from normal. In other words, the situation will remain an exceptional one for some time to come.

Against this backdrop, the question naturally arises: how exactly is the LNS working in this exceptional situation when it comes to COVID-19? How have we adapted individual services? In short: who is actually doing what when it comes to COVID-19? And who is currently taking on special tasks? Here are a few brief answers concerning our administrative department.

Department of Administration, Finance and Support Services

Infrastructure & Logistics

Infrastructure & Logistics has been commissioned by the Ministry of Health and the Direction de la Santé to manage the stock and distribution of items required for COVID-19 analyses. These include swabs and various analysis kits. A total of 6 different types of articles are being sent to private laboratories, hospitals and institutes.

Our three drivers in charge of transporting samples are currently, and in addition to their usual trips, also on the road to collect Covid-19 samples from our partners. Our drivers also made crucial trips, in the nights and on the weekends, to Rotterdam in the test validation phase at the very beginning of the outbreak. LNS was following the WHO protocol which required double testing of the first 5 positive and 10 negative samples and hence the drivers were essential to quickly enable results communication.

The members of our Cleaning Team also play a very special role. Cleanliness and Hygiene of course plays a central role in an institution such as ours, and that is even truer in times like these. Therefore, critical surfaces like door handles are continuously disinfected, additionally our experts make sure that soap and disinfectant is available at all times and everywhere in the building.

Financial Service

Service Finances also continues to run smoothly even with people working from home. One example was the closure of the annual accounts and finalizing and presenting the budget 2021. The service is also heavily involved in securing funds required for equipment and consumables around the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s more, since maintaining material supply chains is currently particularly important, colleagues are facing additional challenges.

HR Service

The Service RH is also facing special challenges. This is mainly due to the fact that many of the measures currently taken also affect the LNS as an employer. People working from home and those requesting special leave are just a few examples. Team members of this service are in demand as contact persons. The same applies when it comes to welcoming new colleagues who are currently expanding our team, especially in crisis-relevant areas.

IT Service

The tasks of our IT experts are particularly versatile. For example, a labelling system was set up for the approximately 10,000 tests in retirement homes, which allows us to quickly assign samples in accordance with data protection regulations. This had become necessary due to the large number of samples, and the system was also used for other Covid-19 tests to enable the virologists to work faster.

The IT Service also supports automated data transfer, both internally and with external partners, in order to ensure fast and secure processes. And of course, especially in IT, everyday matters play an important role during the crisis. In this context, our experts are also currently busy installing and configuring hardware, for example.

We are all COVID-19 Fighters!