On March 1, Amazon Italy confirmed that two of its workers have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A spokesperson for Amazon stated that the company was "supporting the affected employees, who were in Milan and are now in quarantine."
As a result, the company has suspended and restricted all of its non-essential business trips, including within the US. Amazon also stated its employees asking them not to schedule any meetings that required taking flights until the end of April.
According to the National Radio Podcast's report, the Google employee tested positive for the virus was present in the Zurich office "for a limited time" before showing symptoms.
A Google spokesperson also said, "we can confirm that one employee from our Zurich office has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. They were in the Zurich office for a limited time, before they had any symptoms. We have taken - and will continue to take - all necessary precautionary measures, following the advice of public health officials, as we prioritize everyone's health and safety."
Amazon said that it has said that its Zurich office hasn't been shut down but it has restricted its employees from traveling to China, Italy, and Iran. The company is also looking to restrict its employees in Japan and South Korea from non-business travels next month.
Several industry giants have canceled conferences
As the fear of the novel coronavirus becoming a pandemic, Google has also canceled its 'Global News Initiative' summit, which was scheduled to take place in Northern California in April and Facebook also canceled its F8 developer conference that was supposed to be held in May.
On Sunday, Twitter also mentioned that it is restricting all of its non-essential business trips both for its employees and partners.
The micro-blogging platform stated, "We have continued to monitor the situation closely and are adjusting our internal policies to respond to this rapidly-evolving situation. On February 29, we informed our people and started notifying partners that we are suspending all non-critical business travel and events." Further adding, "Our goal is to reduce the risk that anyone at Twitter might contract or inadvertently spread the virus. It is important that we take these proactive steps to protect ourselves and others and minimize the spread of COVID-19,"
Speaking of the cure, researchers and scientists are consistently working on the cure for the outbreak. Some have stated that making the COVID-19 vaccine would take a longer time than developing drugs to combat symptoms.
Scientists are not dependent on the old SARS and MERS outbreak researches as the virus died down, leaving the job incomplete. Therefore, it is necessary to start with new research.
As of now, more than 87,000 people have been infected by the virus and nearly 3,000 people have lost their lives since the initial outbreak in December.
