The CEOE Foundation’s Sumamos Plan will conduct antigen tests for the hospitality industry in collaboration with Makro

These tests are part of the collaboration agreement between the CEOE Foundation, CEIM and the Community of Madrid, through the regional Ministry of Health, and this time Makro will also be involved in the project. The aim is to detect and reduce positive Covid cases within a sector that employs 220,000 workers a day and accounts for 7% of the region's GDP, and to guarantee safety in the hotel and catering sector. It is particularly relevant to emphasise the importance of safety in the hospitality sector during Easter.

Today, the ‘Sumamos Salud+Economía Plan’ (in English, We Combine Health and Economy Plan) promoted by the CEOE Foundation, which in the Community of Madrid is implemented together with Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM) and the Community of Madrid (CAM), opens a new screening centre to carry out COVID-19 antigen tests from March 27 to April 4 for employers and workers in the hospitality sector in Madrid, in collaboration with Makro.

The Regional Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, the President of the CEOE Foundation, Fátima Báñez, the President of CEIM, Miguel Garrido, and the Secretary General of Makro, Eduardo Pérez, visited the testing site located in a key commercial area for the hospitality sector, where these tests are carried out free of charge to ” target the virus, control it and combat it”, said the Regional Minister of Health. “The hospitality sector is a priority economic activity, an industry that employs 220,000 workers a day and accounts for 7% of the region’s GDP, and we have always been in favour of it being open, while respecting all safety measures”.

In this way, there is direct collaboration for preventive monitoring and to mitigate the pandemic in the run-up to Easter, one of the most important festivities for the hotel and catering industry.

In turn, the president of the CEOE Foundation, Fátima Báñez, stressed that  “shared efforts enable us to reach greater goals so that we can return to the normality we all want as soon as possible and, in this case, in a sector as important as the hotel and catering industry. With the Sumamos Plan, we are managing to do 35% more tests in the Community of Madrid due to the efforts that the collaborating companies, such as Makro right now, are making, and we want to continue this fight by offering these temporary centres to the Community of Madrid as vaccination centres in the future”.

The president of CEIM, Miguel Garrido, stressed that “antigen testing for hospitality professionals is important to ensure that we are able to continue implementing the successful policy carried out in the Community of Madrid of combining virus control with economic activity. As a result, many SMEs and the self-employed are managing to preserve thousands of jobs in our region.  Allowing activity to continue is the best aid we can receive”, he pointed out.

In the words of Eduardo Pérez, General Secretary of Makro: “since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, one of our priorities has been to support the hotel and catering industry. This is why we want to join the Sumamos Plan as a sign of our commitment to the sector, thereby helping it prepare for Easter, which is one of the most important times of the year in terms of consumption in bars and restaurants”.

Finally, the president of the Madrid catering trade, Tomás Gutiérrez, welcomed the fact that they are “combining health and employment”, as this has saved more than 6,000 jobs, he said.

The Sumamos Plan screenings will be held at Paseo Imperial 40, from 10:00 to 18:00. All professionals in the Horeca channel interested in taking the test free of charge must book an appointment through the Sumamos Plan website. Hospitality professionals who are Makro customers will be able to use the centre’s car park.

The aim is to identify and reduce the number of COVID-19 infections by carrying out antigen tests, effectively identifying positive individuals, especially asymptomatic ones. In this way, the goal is to provide greater safety to the sector at a time that is so important both for its activity and for the leisure of society in general.

This initiative is an example of the commitment to make progress in the capacity to track and enhance the actions of the administration in the fight against COVID-19. Specifically, a further step is being taken by opening up the opportunity for testing to employers and workers in the hospitality industry in the province of Madrid who have previously requested an appointment through the website: https://plansumamos.es/reservar-cita

The ‘Sumamos Plan’ is an initiative promoted by the CEOE Foundation for the nationwide implementation of mass testing among companies and the Community of Madrid, in coordination with Makro, as part of the ongoing commitment for public-private collaboration to overcome the pandemic.