Our core purpose at Discovery is to make people healthier; the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented test of our purpose and demands that we as a company seek out every way possible to assist our clients and South Africa in this time. We are absolutely committed to this and the first priority for Discovery is the health and welfare of our employees, clients and business partners. Over the past few weeks we have taken proactive steps to ensure our business is prepared to manage the risk of COVID-19 and to help protect the health and lives of our clients.
On Sunday, President Ramaphosa provided more detail on the wide-ranging actions being taken by government to stop the spread of this virus and the role that business needs to play in protecting our communities. For more information on the steps that Discovery has already taken, please visit our COVID-19 information hub.
Importantly, we also wanted to advise you that in order to help reduce the contact risk in all workspaces of the various Discovery offices, we will be phasing in a remote work plan for our employees. We are working hard to minimise the impact of these measures on our clients and we have therefore extended the operating hours of our call centres. That said, if you do experience any disruption to our usual service levels, many of the services you may need are available on the Discovery website and app. We encourage you to register on our website and download the Discovery app and use this option, which is free for all clients. Should you need to call us though, we will make every effort to maintain our normal service levels, but do appeal for understanding in the event that service levels are not maintained from time to time.
In order to protect our employees, all Discovery walk-in client centres in Sandton, Sea Point, Umhlanga, Menlyn, Century City and the Vitality Wellness Centre at Virgin Active Tygervalley, will close from 18 March 2019. We will communicate when these will re-open as the situation evolves.
Please continue to check the Discovery website for any updates, including important information about your Discovery benefits, which have all been enhanced to offer relevant COVID-19 cover. We are also constantly updating educational content regarding COVID-19 on the Discovery website and we encourage you to read more about how you and your family can protect your health during this time.
These are just some of the actions we have already implemented and we want you to know, as our valued clients, that we are committed to supporting you through these challenging times and we will continue to keep you updated.