Pedestrians are seen wearing a surgical mask in London’s Chinatown on January 25, 2020.
Niklas Halle’n | AFP | Getty Images
Sony Pictures announced on Wednesday the temporary closure of offices in London, Paris and Gdynia, Poland, after an employee based in London could have been exposed to the coronavirus.
“The health and well-being of our employees is of the utmost importance,” the company said in a note to employees. “We thought it was important to share with you that one of our employees in London may have been exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus following recent trips to an affected area. As a precaution, the offices in London, Paris and Gdynia will be closed for the rest of the week, and employees should work from home. “
It is not the first time that a company has temporarily closed an office or instituted a new health insurance policy following the coronavirus epidemic, which began in China.
Amazon said on Tuesday that an employee who works in one of his offices in Seattle, Washington, had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Amazon informed the employees in a memo, saying that the employee returned home on February 25 and has not been at the 9th Avenue office since. It’s not Amazon’s head office, which is located on 7th Avenue.
The tech company asked employees with symptoms to stay home and see a doctor. In addition, Amazon has started to restrict all non-essential employee travel to the United States.
Similarly, a Google employee tested positive for coronavirus in an office in Switzerland last week. In response, the company began to limit staff travel to Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea, all of which have seen the virus spread. The Zurich office at Google remained open.