Coronavirus triggers world’s biggest work-from-home experiment
Internet giants order their employees to work from home while students are continuing their education via online amid fear of coronavirus outbreak
As the new coronavirus spreads globally, factories, shops, hotels and restaurants have ordered its employees to work from home which it's likely the world's largest work-from-home experiment.
Instead going to offices, schools and other daily work places, millions of people are staying in their apartments. In most of the offices across Asia, desks are empty and the phones are quiet, as the region is struggling with the deadly virus, reported CNN.
Thousands of business companies across the globe are trying to figure out how to stay operational in a virtual world without going outside to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, reported Bloomberg.
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Many internet giants including Google, Coinbase, and Twitter have also told their employees to work from home amid the coronavirus.
Twitter has ordered its 5,000 employees to work from home while cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has asked that its employees who consider themselves susceptible to the flu also can work from home.
Google has also instructed its Dublin office to work from home on Tuesday as a "precautionary measure," after one of its employees reported flu-like symptoms, reported Business Insider. Most of Google's 8,000 strong office in Dublin, Ireland — the tech giant's European headquarters — have been told to work from home on Tuesday after a member of its staff reported flu-like symptoms.
Earlier, Internet companies took part in a meeting with the World Health Organization on January at Facebook offices in Silicon Valley to discuss tactics such as promoting reliable information and fact-checking dubious claims about the coronavirus referred to as COVID-19.
On the other hand, millions of children across the globe have been affected by school closures amid fears that the coronavirus could spread.
Instead of physically visiting to the school some students are continuing their education via online, sitting in front of the laptop in the time of the coronavirus, reported CNN.
The novel coronavirus which is believed to have originated late last year in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. The virus has alarmingly spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, later at least 60 countries across the globe.
The viral infection has now claimed more than 3,000 lives around the globe and at least 89,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus.
