The Washington State China Relations Council hosted a webinar titled “Best Practice Sharing in Responding to Covid-19” on March 10th. The call brought together local experts to discuss ways local companies can be proactive to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
Two attorneys from Dorsey and Whitney, Mike Droke and Aaron Goldstein, started out the call by stressing how important it is for companies to have a plan to manage through the crisis and they shared some thoughts on what should be in such a plan.
Kristi Heim, the Director of Communications at BGI, explained how her company has been very active in China developing and distributing test kits. She noted that the company developed the capability in China to diagnose up to 50,000 tests per day. BGI’s kits are now being made available in over 30 countries including the U.S.
Following Kristi, Mike Merritt, Senior Policy Advisor for the Port of Seattle’s executive team, outlined current update and efforts the Port is taking at airport and seaport, and impacts of the coronavirus on cruise operations and cargo shipping.
The last speaker of the day, John Melin, the CEO of Brown and Haley talked about his company’s risk assessment plan for business operations and outlined some of the actions the company has taken after the risk assessment has been completed.