Google Inc advised that all its thousands of workers based in North America to instead work from home as part of the company's latest efforts to safeguard their personnel from the increasing danger of coronavirus.
The search giant headquartered in Silicon Valley sent a memo to its staff on Tuesday telling them that it was revising its company rules to recommend that all personnel who can work in their homes do so until at least April 10, people with knowledge of the matter disclosed. A representative for the online search giant has confirmed the order through email.
The latest advice is an expansion of a similar guidance that the company provided to the San Francisco Bay area workers. So far, most of the large firms have recommended work-from-home policy to specific areas in the US.
Separately, a spokesperson for Google Inc said the company is temporarily banning advertisements on its site for medical face masks "out of caution."
Precautions last week followed initial reports of the spread of the coronavirus in the Pacific Northwest, including King County, where Google's biggest state offices- Seattle and Kirkland - are located.
Coronavirus instances have spread rapidly across the US. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, at last count, cases rose to 647 nationwide, with 25 fatalities. The state of New York has jumped to the top spot with over 170 cases reported.
The COVID-19 has inflicted over 113,000 people worldwide and killed almost 4,000, causing rising global disruption to financial markets, crippling supply chains and forcing corporate offices and major events to be closed down.
For at least some of its staff, including Apple and Facebook, many large US tech companies have adopted remote-work policies. Industry conferences like Mobile World Congress, Google I/O, and Facebook F8 were postponed, and Southwest Tech and Culture Festival in Austin, Texas, was also canceled Friday.
Google has announced it will pay hourly contract employees for the hours they would have worked if it were not for the virus and also created a fund to compensate sick leave for contract personnel or vendors who can't report for duty.
Google discussed implementing a 24-hour response team to keep in contact with the World Health Organization and help the company's response teams make critical decisions about their various operations around the world.
Meanwhile, since many schools and workplaces are now working remotely to prevent contact, high demand for Google products such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Classroom, and Hangouts will be expected.
