As the coronavirus spreads in India, it’s slowly forcing more and more companies to work from home.
An employee at Google Bangalore, who worked out of the company’s RMZ Infinity office, has tested positive for coronavirus. He becomes the fifth positive case in Karnataka. “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,” Google’s spokesperson said in a statement. ” 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. Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking employees in that Bangalore office to work from home tomorrow. 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,” the statement added.
Google becomes the latest company in Bangalore with an employee to test positive for the coronavirus. Earlier, Dell and Mindtree had reported that their employees had tested positive. Dell had subsequently asked employees on the fourth floor of its Domlur office to work from home. The Mindtree employee hadn’t visited its office since contracting the virus, so no such restrictions were put in place. Like with the Dell and Mindtree employees, the Google employee too had recently traveled abroad. Karnataka has also seen the first death in India because of the coronavirus, with a 76-year-old man in Kalabauragi succumbing to complications arising from the virus. A Paytm employee in Gurgaon had tested positive for coronavirus last week, and the company had temporarily shut down offices and asked employees to work from home.
Globally, several companies are now asking employees to work from home. Amazon has instructed all 650,000 of its global workforce to work from home if possible. Earlier, Google had given a similar directive for its Google offices in the US. In India, Flipkart had asked all its Bangalore employees to work for home for three days to prepare for eventualities arising out of the coronavirus.