In December 2019, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) China office heard the first reports of a previously unknown virus. It had triggered a number of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in Central China, with a population of over 11 million.
The virus, which has been renamed Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 (it was formerly known as the 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease) by the WHO, has infected 76,936 people in mainland China, with further 2,051 cases reported from 30 other countries.
On Thursday, 27th February, the virus’ index case was reported in Nigeria, the victim, an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria. The virus has continued to reduce economic activities in affected regions, deepening toils on world economies with the U.S. markets plunging sharply on Thursday, in the worst four-day loss since 2008 financial crisis, also companies are forced to protect their employees from spreading the virus by canceling conferences, and meetups.
Tech-giant, Facebook on Thursday canceled its annual F8 developers conference, the biggest annual event for the U.S. tech giant, over fears about the possible spread of the novel coronavirus.
Nestle, the world’s largest food company, said Thursday it has asked all 291,000 of its employees not to travel internationally for business until the middle of March. “Domestic travel should be replaced by alternative methods of communication where possible,” a company spokesperson added.
Consumer goods giant, Unilever said it has been restricting travel to and from northern Italy and other affected countries. Beyond that the guidance is “business-critical travel only,” a company spokesperson said.
PwC is asking employees to defer or cancel trips to Japan and is encouraging them to use the company’s $1,000 annual backup child-care benefit in case of school or daycare closures.
Siemens said it “urgently recommends employees to replace nonessential travel to affected regions with phone calls or video conferences, and Coca-Cola said it has asked office workers in China, Singapore, South Korea and Italy to work from home.
Restrictions are further pilling pressures on airline top line and the travel industry.
According to Global Business Travel Association, the industry faces a monthly hit of more than $46 billion from the coronavirus impact.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
