‘Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us -- and the world around us’
On Monday, search engine giant Google and social media site Twitter asked their employees to work from home amid the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to reports.
Google’s issuance of the work policy was directed to its employees in Dublin, Ireland, where it has more than 8,000 workers, according to The Irish Times. It came after one employee showed up at work with flu-like symptoms, and applies to just one day.
“We continue to take precautionary measures to protect the health and safety of our workforce, and as part of that effort we have asked our Dublin teams to work from home tomorrow,” said a Google spokeswoman, according to an Irish Times report.
Starting this Monday, working from home will be mandatory for employees at Twitter’s South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan offices, Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie said on Monday in a blog post, according to reports.
"We are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they're able," said Christie. "Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us -- and the world around us."
According to data from Statista, Twitter employs 4,900 people. The company has more than 35 offices worldwide.
As of March 3, there were 90,870 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world affecting 76 countries, according to the World Health Organization. More than 10,500 of these cases were reported outside of the virus epicentre in China, 27 were in Canada. The virus has killed 3,112 around the world, with 2,946 reported deaths in China.
