Amazon has asked employees in New Jersey and New York to work from home if possible until the end of the month.
The tech company issued a memo to its East Coast employees on Monday as coronavirus concerns grow, according to CNBC. Last week, Amazon told its employees in the San Francisco Bay area and Seattle to work from home if possible after one employee in its Seattle office tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
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Audible, an Amazon company that sells audiobooks, is located in New Jersey, and the tech company staffs thousands of marketing and finance employees in its New York offices.
“We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve,” Amazon said in a statement. “This includes recommending that employees who are able to work from home in Seattle/Bellevue, the Bay Area, New York, New Jersey and the Lombardy region/Asti province of Italy do so through the end of March.”
Several other major Silicon Valley tech companies have ordered staff around the world to avoid public places and travel as much as possible. On Friday, Apple asked all 12,000 of its employees to work from home if possible to minimize the risk of the coronavirus outbreak affecting its staff.
Twitter also sent a memo to employees in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea last week directing them to work from home if they can. The order was driven in part by emergency regulations put in place by the foreign governments to contain the spread of the virus.
