Twitter joined a growing list of companies suspending business travel and events amid coronavirus concerns as cases in the United States reach 92 people.
The social media giant announced Sunday their strategy for preventing the spread of the virus among their employees and partners, immediately banning all non-critical travel and events.
According to God-is Rivera, global director of culture and community for Twitter, the company has also banned outside visitors to its global offices.
Other companies to halt travel and events include Facebook, Amazon, and TD Bank group.
Headquarters of social network Twitter in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco where visitors are now banned to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among employees
A woman wearing a protective face mask walks in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday. Cases of the coronavirus continue to rise across the globe as U.S. companies ban unessential travel
There are now six confirmed deaths in the United States, all in Washington state
‘Out of an abundance of caution and because the situation is evolving so rapidly, Twitter is implementing a mandatory global business travel restriction for our employees, canceling all upcoming events, and pausing external visitors to company offices, effective immediately,’ God-is Rivera, global director of culture and community for Twitter, wrote in a statement on Twitter.
The pause was first announced to employees and partners on Saturday, February 29, and will include a #BlackTwitterLive live-streaming that was set to take place on Tuesday.
The company plans to keep the ban in place until the ‘World Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control or when a vaccine becomes available’, according to a statement released Sunday night.
In the statement, Jennifer Christie, head of human resources at Twitter, said that the company has ‘the responsibility of ensuring that the health and safety of our employees and partners is not compromised’.
‘We have continued to monitor the situation closely and are adjusting our internal policies to respond to this rapidly-evolving situation,’ she said.
‘On February 29, we informed our people and started notifying partners that we are suspending all non-critical business travel and events.
God-is Rivera, global director of culture and community for Twitter, reveals the visitor ban
A sign outside of the Twitter office building in San Francisco. The company suspended business travel and events as coronavirus cases in the United States reach 92 people
An employee works at a reception desk of the Twitter Inc. office in Tokyo, Japan. Travel between the company’s global offices has been suspended until the coronavirus crisis ends
Jennifer Christie, head of human resources at Twitter, announced the travel policy on Sunday
‘Our goal is to reduce the risk that anyone at Twitter might contract or inadvertently spread the virus,’ Christie added.
‘It is important that we take these proactive steps to protect ourselves and others and minimize the spread of COVID-19.
‘There are enormous transnational efforts underway to tackle this virus. As a global company with a global workforce, we want to do what we can to help the success of these multi-stakeholder containment efforts.
‘Temporarily suspending travel is an immediate and important step.’
On Friday, Amazon also deferred all non-essential travel, within the US and beyond, and Google set new restrictions for travel to South Korea and other places, as corporations moved to protect their employees from the spread of coronavirus.
Amazon, the second largest private employer in the United States, confirmed on Sunday that two of their European employees had tested positive for the coronavirus and they had taken the decision to pause travel to prevent their employees from being affected by a further outbreak.
Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener said that the internet retailer was ‘supporting the affected employees, who were in Milan and are now in quarantine’ and that no employees in the U.S. had become sick.
As part of the new policy, any Amazon employee looking to book critical travel must get approval from the vice president while employees have been told to refrain from scheduling meetings that require flights until at least the end of April.
United Airlines revealed last Monday that short-term demand for its trans-Pacific routes was down by 75% – excluding China where demand has almost disappeared amid virus panic
Delta announced Sunday it was suspending its daily flight between JFK and Milan
Canada’s TD Bank Group told Reuters it was suspending all non-essential business travel to China, Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Its peer Bank of Nova Scotia has also reportedly halted non-essential travel and media giant Thomas Reuters followed suit banning non-essential travel to China, Hong Kong and South Korea.
‘Thomson Reuters has halted all non-essential travel to China, Hong Kong and South Korea. All other travel remains under constant review,’ a company spokesperson said.
Facebook also said it would cancel its annual developer conference in May because of the virus and a memo over the weekend ended social visits from non-employees to any of its global offices, according to the New York Times.
JetBlue which flies in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, became the first US airline to offer waivers for all travel on Wednesday, announcing it would suspend change and cancellation fees for new flight bookings between February 27 and March 11 this year.
It was quickly joined by American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Over the weekend, Delta and American Airlines suspended flights to Milan, the capital of the Lombardy region which has been hit hard by the Italian virus outbreak, the biggest in Europe.
United Airlines has postponed its new pilot class which was scheduled to commence in March.
Coronavirus fears have intensified in recent days as the US has recorded its first six deaths from the disease and 92 cases were confirmed. All of the deaths took place in Washington state.
On Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence said the travel advisory alert was being raised to ‘Level 4 – Do Not Travel’ for the Veneto region and Lombardy, of which Milan is the capital, in Italy.
The Level 4 warning is the most severe that can be issued.
The government said the decision was made ‘due to the level of community transmission of the virus and imposition of local quarantine procedures’.
Pence said on Saturday the U.S. State Department would work with Italy to coordinate medical screening for anyone traveling to the United States.
Worldwide, the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, has sickened at least 89,620 people and killed 3,048 in 54 countries.
An ambulance transports a patient from the Life Care Center of Kirkland, the long-term care facility linked to the several confirmed coronavirus cases in the state on Sunday
Healthcare workers transport a patient on a stretcher into an ambulance at Life Care Center of Kirkland in Kirkland, Washington, where a resident died from the coronavirus on Saturday
Two coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed over the weekend in Kirkland, Washington state, as a resident at the Life Care Center nursing home and a patient at the EvergreenHealth hospital.
A further four deaths were announced in Washington state on Monday.
Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare long-term care facility, EvergreenHealth, in Kirkland just outside Seattle.
Six coronavirus cases have been confirmed at the Life Care Center, including one resident in his 70s who later died at the hospital, while more than 50 staff and residents have shown symptoms and will be tested.
Around 27 of the 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff have shown some symptoms of the virus, including some cases where individuals had contracted pneumonia.
The majority of cases in the US are people who were evacuated under medical supervision from virus hotspots, including three from Wuhan and 44 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Health experts say that the coronavirus has a low mortality rate, resulting in death in about 2 to 3 percent of cases, the majority of whom are elderly patients or those with compromised immune systems.
The outbreak is leading to sharp reductions in air travel demand in the US, with major companies such as Amazon ordering a freeze on all non-essential employee travel. The result is clear in photos showing empty airplane seats and deserted terminals.