Emilio Conde is Director of Key Accounts at Quirónprevención, a leading multinational company in the occupational risk prevention sector. He manages a team of over 1,000 professionals who provide health and safety consulting services to major companies operating in Spain. During 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quirónprevención and Emilio personally collaborated on the analysis, design, and implementation of strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in numerous companies across various sectors, including the cruise industry.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 60 – March 2022
Emilio has developed his professional career in the areas of Occupational Health and Safety and Human Resources. He studied Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid and completed a Master's degree in Occupational Health and Safety. In 1997, he joined Frater Prevención, the prevention unit of Mutua Fraternidad-Muprespa, as Deputy Director of the Technical Area. Since then, he has held various positions and expanded his professional scope to include Human Resources. In 2006, he obtained a diploma in Labor Relations, and in 2008, he completed a Master's degree in Human Resources at IE Business School in Madrid.
The various positions he has held since then range from Technical Director and Deputy Director of Human Resources to his current role as Key Account Manager at Quirónprevención, where he has been since 2017.
You belong to Quirónsalud, one of the most important healthcare groups in Spain. With these credentials, and due to the pandemic, Quirónprevención is presenting itself to the tourism sector with essential health and safety solutions for the reactivation of travel. Tell us about it.
Indeed. At Quirónprevención, we quickly realized that our work and efforts, while the strictest pandemic restrictions were in place, should be focused on helping companies, in any sector, to safely restart their operations.
This immediacy in the mobilization and availability of professionals and resources for the cause allowed us to lead the development of tailored solutions for a return to in-person work that guaranteed people's health.
The tourism sector, as is well known, was one of the hardest hit by COVID-19 and has been one of the sectors with which we have collaborated the most, providing it with tools for safe access, mass testing, etc.
First antibody tests, and then PCR and antigen tests, have proven essential for reactivating tourism, along with digitalization as an indispensable tool. How has the development and adaptation process been to serve businesses during the Covid era?
The key in this pandemic has been our ability to adapt to the advances and new tools that have become available. As you rightly say, initially there were serological tests that allowed us to determine, through blood analysis, whether or not someone had had the disease. Then came PCR and antigen tests, which have allowed us to know whether or not someone had the virus at a given time when symptoms were present. And now, in the post-vaccine scenario, we are returning to serology as the main tool for managing COVID-19.
But, regardless of the diagnostic technique, at Quirónprevención what we have developed are cross-cutting solutions valid for the different moments or stages that the pandemic has gone through, such as our Safe COVID-19 Protocol model.
What has been your position regarding the cruise industry?
We have collaborated with several companies in the cruise industry during the pandemic, carrying out multiple tasks, such as risk assessment, development of protocols, design of activity reactivation plans, mass COVID testing, etc.
The cruise industry has established highly advanced and rigorous protocols for resuming operations, and pre-departure health checks, testing, and collaboration with technology and management providers on land are essential components of these protocols. Where does Quirón Prevención fit into this logistics chain?
Both the cruise industry and the tourism and leisure sector as a whole have undergone a paradigm shift that now requires a health partner in every project, and at QuirónPrevención, we have been working to be the best health partner.
At Quirónprevención, we cover the entire chain you're referring to. As a health and safety partner, we need firsthand knowledge of all the processes, equipment, and resources involved in the project or activity to detect any safety gaps that could lead to infection or spread of the virus.
Have risk prevention strategies changed much with the Omicron variant?
What the Omicron variant has meant is not a change in strategies as such, but a small step backwards in them, for example, by promoting teleworking again in cases where it was possible, or reducing capacity again, or tightening the rules on the use of masks.
This variant, although it has caused a huge wave of infections, has arrived at a very different time than the previous ones, with more than 90% of the population vaccinated with the complete schedule and after having inoculated the third dose to the at-risk population, which has allowed that setback in the strategies to be slight and not a return to square one.
Asian countries in general have been stricter with COVID regulations, moving towards a goal of zero cases. Do you think that's possible?
If it's been done, then it's possible. But I think it's worth reflecting on the kind of country we are, and our capacity to withstand a shutdown of productive activity of this magnitude.
We live in a globalized world where borders are blurred and, as long as there is even the slightest movement of people from one place to another, it is really difficult to reach zero cases.
Speaking of the tourism or cruise sectors, do you think this new way of traveling, with health controls, will remain in one form or another in the future?
COVID-19 has brought us many things that are here to stay, at least for a long period of time, and I think this new way of traveling is one of them, as are working from home or wearing masks in crowded places.
What are the future challenges for preventing health risks in the fully mobile environment of such a globalized world?
Being able to avoid such catastrophic situations with health and safety plans and pre-established protocols that, in the event of an incident or a biological threat, can minimize the risk.
