Coronavirus: Twitter 'strongly encouraging' staff to work from home

Twitter is "strongly encouraging" that employees work from home if it is possible in their particular job, in order to "lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us - and the world around us".

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The company is also putting in restrictions on particular employees based in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea which are all required to work from home under local government restriction laws. Twitter said it is shifting away from having physical meetings to remoting into a meeting instead, in the virtual world safe from coronavirus.

With so many Twitter employees pushed into working from home, the company is using this time to deep clean and sanitize all spaces in their buildings. Twitter explains: "For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business. Our Real Estate & Workplace team is increasing deep cleaning and sanitizing in all spaces, as well as more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices and pre-packaged, pre-composed, and pre-plated food options".

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey himself has come out addressing the change, tweeting:

Read More: Coronavirus / COVID-19

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New York Governor Cuomo has established a 1-mile containment zone in New Rochelle over the spread of coronavirus / COVID-19 in New York, while Google has recently asked all staff based in Canada or the United States to work from home if they can. Apple has just canceled an event where it was due to unveil a successor to the iPhone SE, and a new iPad, too.

Delivery start ups including Postmates have now got a "non-contact delivery option" for those who are worried about contracting coronavirus, too.

We've seen some gigantic events being canceled or postponed over coronavirus / COVID-19 fears, with Mobile World Congress, the Game Developers Conference, Google I/O, Facebook's F8 developer conference -- and even chatter from Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee, with the IOC talking about outright canceling the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Google has also ended all of its in-person job interviews for now over coronavirus fears, instead shifting to a digital-only Hangouts meeting for future employees. Twitter is also "strongly encouraging" its employees to work from home if possible, while Amazon has halted its near 800,000 strong workforce from all non-essential travel over coronavirus / COVID-19 fears.

But don't worry, gamers... as AMD has confirmed that the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launches are "on track" for later this year and that coronavirus hasn't forced a delay for these launches (yet).

You can read more on our coverage of coronavirus here.