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PTB and the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2

Limited provision of research and services

Press Release
17.03.2020

The coronavirus has, of course, also affected the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) with its sites in Braunschweig and Berlin. The virus has currently (as of 17 March 2020) only been detected in a few people who had been on holiday. Those people went straight into quarantine on their return. To date, none of PTB’s staff working in Braunschweig or Berlin have tested positive for the virus. All preventative measures to stop the virus spreading exponentially, or at least to slow it down, are being taken very seriously at PTB. A Corona Crisis Unit has been set up at PTB and it decides each day which measures are to be taken, based on all the information that is available. One of the main ideas, which comes from a sense of responsibility towards the well-being of the community, is to reduce all contact between members of staff to an absolute minimum.

Fotonachweis: © Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Fotonachweis: © Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

The measures we have taken include cancelling almost all PTB events in the near future (initially until the end of April/middle of May) and stopping our researchers from attending conferences and workshops (if these had not been cancelled anyway). No business trips are taking place at all, not even between our sites in Berlin and Braunschweig. All members of staff who can work at home are being asked to do so.

 

Our detailed catalog of measures goes very far and is naturally limiting our usual work routines to a noticeable extent. In individual cases, this is also having effects on our services such as calibrations, testing, conformity assessments and on-site audits by the conformity assessment body, meaning that not all the deadlines we have agreed can be kept. We therefore ask our customers to be understanding in this situation.

PTB hopes that it can play its part in successfully fighting the coronavirus by making it as difficult as possible for the virus to spread.

jes/ptb

Contact:

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Corona Crisis Unit
E-mail: Opens window for sending emailcorona-krisenstab(at)ptb.de

Author: Jens Simon