OFFICIAL INFORMATION
on the current situation and measures taken in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, as well as on the peculiarities of the Institute’s work during non-working days from 30 March to 30 April 2020

In order to inform the staff of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research about the measures taken, we hereby inform you of the following.

On the basis of the Order of the JINR Director of 16.03.2020, in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the transfer of a part of the staff to the remote working regime for the period up to 31 May 2020 was timely organized. All public events, including conferences and seminars, were cancelled. Sending employees for business trips and hiring citizens from foreign countries were banned.

As a result of these measures, more than half of the JINR administrative staff, as well as most of the scientific staff not directly involved in work on the operating accelerators were transferred to the remote working regime.

By order of the JINR Operational Headquarters for preventing the spread of the coronavirus infection (headed by JINR Assistant Director G. D. Shirkov, shtab@jinr.ru), measures aimed at the disease prevention were implemented in all the divisions. They included a regular cleaning of surfaces in public areas using antiseptics, provision of personal protection equipment, setting up of decontaminating facilities. Non-contact thermometers and thermal imagers to measure the temperature of working employees were supplied to divisions. All information concerning the Institute’s staff is officially sent by the JINR Operational Headquarters to all the emails in the jinr.ru domain (about 4,800 email addresses).

The Governor of the Moscow region decided to introduce the high-alert mode in the territory of the Moscow Region, as well as to suspend the activities of some categories of objects. Thus, activities of the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”, the “Archimedes” swimming pool and other cultural and sports objects were suspended. Several cafes, restaurants, canteens of the Institute, as well as the hotel “Dubna” were temporarily closed.

Moreover, the work of the JINR SPA & Resort Hotel “Dubna” in Alushta was suspended up to 1 June so that to comply with a relevant order of the Head of the Republic of Crimea.

Due to the relevant order issued by the President of Russia, the period from 30 March to 8 April 2020 was declared non-working with salary retention in the Institute. It is necessary to highlight that JINR is a continuously operating organization and it has objects with nuclear energy use, including the IBR-2 reactor. There are also divisions ensuring their nuclear and radiation safety, as well as the continuous power transmission, the production and supply of utilities, including to citizens of Dubna. Moreover, JINR divisions provide communication services, fire alarm services, physical protection, perform urgent construction work. In this respect, a considerable part of the Institute in the period of announced non-working days continued its work on a regular basis. The most important construction projects of the Institute, namely the NICA complex and the extensive repair of the building No. 3 of the Hotel “Dubna”, were not also affected.

The period from 4 to 30 April has also been declared non-working by the Presidential Order. Thus, the Institute has the challenge to organize work of divisions taking into account the necessity of carrying out the full range of functions of our organization: scientific, infrastructural, administrative. In this regard, the regulation for work order of administrative and scientific JINR divisions, the interaction between them, the document flow, decision-making and management of all the divisions will be shortly adopted for the whole non-working period taking into account the necessity to comply with serious measures of protection against the coronavirus and the possibility of the remote working regime.

Another significant task the Institute continues to solve in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, diplomatic and consular bodies of Russia and other JINR Member States is the return Dubna of our staff members who are currently in other countries and are not able to return due to a significant reduction in the number of flights and the introduction of other restrictive measures.

The management of the Institute is in constant contact with the Federal Medicobiological Agency of the Russian Federation, the Dubna City Administration and medical institutions of the city and therefore promptly receives information about the current situation with the incidence of COVID-19 and decisions taken by federal, regional and local authorities, including information about possible restrictions for citizens. On my behalf, JINR Chief Engineer B. N. Gikal organizes daily operational meetings with leaders of structural subdivisions of the JINR Management and the Chief Engineer’s Offices to ensure the sustainable work of the Institute.

The JINR Directorate reminds that due to the norms of international law, employees of an international intergovernmental organization are obliged to respect the legislation of the JINR’s country residence (the Russian Federation), including the restrictions established in the Moscow Region for the period up to 1st May:

• keep a distance of at least 1.5 meters from other citizens, including in public places and public transport;
• do not leave the place of residence (stay), except in certain cases (seeking medical assistance, way to and from the place of work, way to the nearest retail and service locations, taking out garbage, walking pets);
• refrain from visiting religious sites, travel for tourism and recreation.

Please note that the legislation of the Russian Federation and the Moscow Region has been amended to allow applying the administrative penalties on those found to violate the restrictions during the period of high-alert, including self-isolation.

According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, in connection with the, you must always have an identity document with you, and we strongly recommend that you always have a JINR identity card or JINR service pass to present these documents in case of a police check. Non-Russian employees must also have a document on accreditation and a residence permit (if available).

The JINR Directorate considers the protection of interests of foreign employees as a special task so JINR Directorate is ready to provide them with all necessary assistance. The JINR International Cooperation Department continues to work in contact with the heads of JINR national groups and is always ready to answer any questions that arise. We assure all JINR employees from the JINR Member States that they are protected by the rights and privileges of the international Institute, whose management is ready to provide them with the necessary assistance in solving emerging issues and problems, including taking care of their family members. They can always address questions to the heads of national groups, directly to the members of the JINR Directorate and to the JINR Operational Headquarters for help and assistance in resolving them.

I am very pleased to note that as a result of all the measures taken, none of the Institute’s employees in Dubna, including those who returned from foreign trips and were in the self-isolation regime, have been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection so far.

On behalf of the JINR Directorate and JINR staff I thank employees who continue to work in this situation, and urge all of our colleagues to pay due attention to precautions and restrictions imposed by the competent authorities of the Russian Federation and Moscow region.

Dear colleagues! In these difficult days for all of us, I sincerely wish you, your families and loved ones health, optimism, respect and care for each other and confidence that together we will overcome this period of challenges and preserve our wonderful Institute, its facilities, intellectual capital and, above all, our international staff!

JINR Director, RAS Academician
V. A. Matveev