Andy Gatesy, the Chairman and CEO of Toly Group, a global supplier of high-quality packaging components for cosmetic products, has welcomed the Maltese Government’s decision to officially permit the sale and use of at-home COVID tests.

Speaking to WhosWho.mt, the executive reflected that as most people in Malta are vaccinated now, cases are becoming less and less severe.

Among Toly Group’s staff, he said, there have been very few severe cases of the virus, despite the repeated spikes in case numbers.

Looking back to the Christmas period, where cases across the world spiked in the wake of the more transmissible Omicron variant of the virus, he described “a disaster” whereby a third of staff were off work either with the virus or isolating after coming into contact with a positive case.

The crisis taught the manufacturing company, which like others in the sector is especially vulnerable to staff shortages, about the utility of at home COVID tests.

Indeed, speaking in January, Toly’s CFO Nick Xuereb lamented the fact that self-testing kits were illegal in Malta.

“In our international operations, in places such as France and UK, we see these as very effective and can quickly identify both positive and negative cases, with the ability to take quick action.  We would like to see home test kits available in Malta and used in a responsible manner, as adopted in other European countries,” he said.

Now with COVID cases again climbing, Mr Gatesy did acknowledge that the company is indeed recording an increase in the number of people calling out due to COVID.

However, the company has already found its use of at-home rapid tests to be useful.

With offices all over the world, it has implemented a policy of both providing tests to staff for free and requiring specific visitors to the office, especially those from abroad, to get tested.

Additionally, if there is a potential case, the company immediately asks employees to get tested, to try to mitigate any chain reaction of the virus spreading through the company’s work force.