Petrobras surpassed the 100 thousand tests for Covid-19 carried out on its employees across the country. The strong investment in the acquisition of kits for exams and contracting of laboratories allows Petrobras to have a wide diagnosis of the health situation of its employees and, together with other preventive measures, forms a set of preventive barriers against Covid-19 in the operational units .

Of the total tests, 90.9 thousand are of the rapid type, which identify antibodies, and were applied in the pre-shipment and in the pre-shift to screen professionals before the start of activities on platforms, refineries, gas processing units. natural and thermal. Another 9,400 are RT-PCR tests, which identify genomes of the virus, and were used on employees and professionals of contractors who showed symptoms of Covid-19.

The data generated from these tests made it possible to better evaluate prevention strategies and allowed to identify asymptomatic professionals who may have had recent contact with the virus and have already developed natural defenses. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, Petrobras has defined mass testing as an important strategy for epidemiological assessment, monitoring employee health and combating Covid-19. This measure was defined based on technical studies and practical assessments of actions taken in several countries ”, says the general manager of Occupational Health, Marcos Marinho.

Currently, testing rates at Petrobras are much higher than in countries that have been recognized as conducting mass testing. The company proportionally tested 4.9 times more than the USA and 4.8 times more than Portugal, for example.

The comprehensive testing strategy advances along with other preventive measures such as rigorous cleaning of the facilities, use of masks, massive adoption of telework in administrative activities and changes in the routines of the operational areas that perform essential activities. Petrobras continues to rapidly expand the scope and frequency of application of tests at operational units, according to the market's service capacity and always considering technical criteria and the evaluation of the region's health status.