Amazon tells all 798,000 employees to halt travel, in US and internationally, over coronavirus fears

Business Insider ^

[TigerClaws]

Amazon told all 798,000 of its employees on Friday to avoid "non-essential travel" domestically and internationally because of concerns about COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Business Insider.

Earlier on Friday, The New York Times reported that employees on Amazon's worldwide operations team, which oversees much of the company's technology and logistics globally, received a separate email from the senior vice president in charge of the team, Dave Clark, telling them not to plan any meetings requiring travel until at least April, when the company hoped to have a better sense of the outbreak's impact.

The spokesperson confirmed that the guidance on avoiding nonessential travel was sent to all employees, including those on the worldwide operations team.

Amazon had already announced restrictions on travel to and from China in January, telling workers who had been to the region to work from home for two weeks upon returning and seek medical attention if they showed symptoms, in-line with guidance from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.

However, as the outbreak has worsened — killing nearly 2,900 people and infecting at least 83,000, with most cases and deaths in China — companies have been forced to take additional measures to protect workers. Facebook's annual developer conference and the largest smartphone conference were both recently canceled because of the coronavirus. On Friday, a Google employee in the company's Zurich office tested positive for the coronavirus.

Companies' operations are also beginning to feel the impact. Amazon has been frantically stockpiling products made in China as concerns grow about how its supply chain could be affected and trying to prevent sellers from jacking up prices for highly sought-after supplies like face masks.

[rxsid]

"Amazon had already announced restrictions on travel to and from China in January"

Hey! That's racist! It's Xenophobic!!

Has anyone confronted Bozos about this?

[Professional]

The hoax fraud flu continues...

[CharlesWayneCT]

I believe this is “business travel”. A lot of companies are shutting down non-essential business travel, because why take a chance of spreading a contagion that would put your workers at home and using insurance money that I imagine Amazon covers directly.

[A Navy Vet]

A good example why the stock market is tanking - commerce slow down.

[null and void]

All this fuss for just a flu...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Varsity Flight]

On a positive, fuel prices are lower here

[blackdog]

https://www.seyfarth.com/news-insights/coronavirus-employer-liability-issues.html

[DouglasKC]

Yeah, but it’s just the flu. /sarc. Remember how Amazon always warns all its employees not to travel at the beginning of the flu season?

[cyclotic]

I’m kind of wondering when I’ll get that order. My job is very heavy travel although all domestically

[mewzilla]

Hmmm, I wonder what percentage of the 780,000 actually do any travelling for Amazon...

[thefactor]

I got a briefing from a world renowned doctor on this topic. She said she plays it safe when it comes to this stuff, but if she had any international travel scheduled over the next few months she would cancel the plans.

[Revel]

I would be a little worried about how the mail and packages may become infected with this virus.

[Rebelbase]

And cash money.

[SgtHooper]

No problem! FedEx will destroy the package AND the virus!

[DEPcom]

That is correct I got an email today on business travels. We have to have approval to fly to China, Hong Kong and South Korea. I bet Italy will be on there Monday.

[usconservative]

The large multi-national bank I work for has halted all travel, period.

We have offices around the world. Our partners in China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan have all been told to work from home, our business offices are closed.

There is strong consideration under-way to do the same in Europe.

Here in the U.S. we're reviewing our pandemic plans and ensuring we have enough compute capacity for people to work from home in the event we have to close offices regionally or nationally.

I don't think it'll come to that here in the U.S. and think we're just being responsible in making sure we've planned appropriately.

[plain talk]

Not just travel. This virus will affect reduce and limit gatherings of people.

[TigerClaws]

Schools will be done remote video.

No sporting events or concerts.

No theme parks.

No hotels. One Marriot already on lockdown.

No cruises. No air travel. Both have recirculate air.

Going to be a long year or two.

[OrangeHoof]

Anything they want can be sent by drone...