After a Google employee in Bengaluru tested positive on Thursday, the US-headquartered company has shut its office in the city for a day asking all employees to work from home as a precautionary measure.
"We can confirm that an employee from our Bangalore office has been diagnosed with COVID-19. They were in one of our Bangalore offices for a few hours before developing any symptoms. The employee has been on quarantine since then, and we have asked colleagues who were in close contact with the employee to quarantine themselves and monitor their health,” said the company in a statement.
After Dell and Mindtree, Google is now the third tech firm in Bengaluru to have an employee diagnosed with coronavirus.
E-commerce giant Amazon early on Friday issued an advisory to all its employees to work from home till March end in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The company, in an email, has recommended its employees around the world, who are able to work from home, do so. Amit Agarwal, India head of Amazon, told employees it was a precautionary measure aimed at allowing the company to manage any risk. Worldwide, the company has reported three positive coronavirus cases, one in Seattle and two in Italy.
Earlier, Amazon also announced that employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine would also receive up to two-weeks of pay. “This additional pay while away from work is to ensure employees have the time they need to return to good health without the worry of lost pay,” said the company in a blogpost.
Flipkart too, has piloted a work-from-home for three days for its 10,000 employees working out of its Bellandur office in Bengaluru. The Walmart-owned company has made it compulsory for its employees, who operate out of its corporate headquarters in the city, to work from home, starting Wednesday for three days.
While most of Uber India employees have been working from home for the past one week, they said they were expecting an announcement on a work-from-home advisory from the company soon.
Several companies like Swiggy, Ola, BYJU’s and Udaan are also recommending work-from-home in the city as companies step up measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
Bengaluru has also shut down all schools till the start of the new academic session in June.