The International Seed Testing Association monitors the situation of COVID-19 quite closely using mainly information from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health supported by information from the German Ministry of Health.
Today the recommendations of both sources changed, which made it necessary to call Phase II of the ISTA Pandemic Plan.
The following actions may interfere your communication with ISTA, the organization announced:
- From Wednesday March 11 to including Tuesday March 31 all members of the Secretariat will work in home office. Please contact the Secretariat during this time only by email.
- For emergency cases only the Secretariat is up and running for accreditation issues (Tuesdays), mail and accounting (Wednesdays) as well as admin and finance (Thursdays) – unless further travel restrictions apply.
- All travel including audits will not take place until and including Wednesday April 15, 2020.
The closure of the Secretariat will affect among others the shipment of Certificates (an early warning was sent a few weeks ago), PT replacement specimens and PT round 20-1. These shipments will not take place until and including March 31, maybe longer.
