Twitter orders all of its staff around the world to work from home over coronavirus fears
- Social media platform widened mandatory work from home policy across globe
- Twitter earlier asked its staff in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan to stay home
- Company has also suspended all ‘non-critical’ business travel amid coronavirus
Twitter has ordered all its staff around the world to work from home in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The deadly virus, which emerged in China late last year, has killed more than 4,600 across the globe and infected around 126,000 – prompting a wave of strict travel restrictions worldwide.
The social media platform had already announced a mandatory work from home policy for its staff in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan earlier this month and suspended ‘non-critical’ business travel and events in February.
‘We are moving beyond our earlier guidance and have now informed all employees globally they must work from home,’ human resources chief Jennifer Christie said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Twitter has ordered all its staff around the world to work from home in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Pictured: The company’s headquarters in San Francisco)
‘We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times.’
Other internet giants have brought in their own policies to protect staff from the deadly virus.
Google began restricting visits to its offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and New York on Monday, while Apple has also encouraged employees to work from home.
Facebook shut its offices in Singapore and London for ‘deep cleaning’ last week after an employee who had spent time in both was diagnosed with the virus.
The decision comes as Donald Trump announced he was ordering an immediate shutdown of all travel from Europe to the US on Wednesday.
‘We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,’ Trump announced in a speech from the Oval Office.
The social media platform had already announced a mandatory work from home policy for its staff in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan earlier this month
The President defended his own actions and vowed the nation, which has 1,312 confirmed cases of COVID-19, would prevail in countering the virus and getting a treatment on the market.
The White House said the travel restrictions would apply to foreign nationals who had visited 26 European countries – excluding the UK and Ireland – in the past 14 days.
It will not apply to US citizens, their ‘immediate’ family members or legal permanent residents.
Coronavirus, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, has infected 126,000 people worldwide, with around 4,600 deaths reported as a result of the virus.
More than 80,000 of these cases, and 3,000 deaths, have been found in China alone, with 9,000 cases across Iran and 7,000 in South Korea.
The worst-hit European country is Italy, which has ordered a countrywide lockdown after 827 people died due to coronavirus amid 12,000 confirmed cases.