Facebook worker in Seattle diagnosed with coronavirus
The company closed down its South Lake Union office in Seattle would be closed until March 9th
A Facebook employee in Seattle has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and the company informed employees the office would be closed until March 9.
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A Facebook employee in Seattle has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
The company informed employees Wednesday night and said its South Lake Union office in Seattle would be closed until March 9, although workers are being urged to work from home until the end of March, according to Bloomberg. The infected employee is a contractor and reportedly was in Facebook’s Stadium East office in Seattle on Feb. 21.
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“A contractor based in our Stadium East office has been diagnosed with the COVID-19,” a company spokesperson released in a statement, Bloomberg reported. “We’ve notified our employees and are following the advice of public health officials to prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”
Facebook says this is the company’s only reported case among its U.S. workforce.
The quickly spreading coronavirus started in China – where it has wreaked the most damage to date with more than 3,000 deaths and more than 80,000 confirmed cases, according to The Washington Post. It has since spread around the world.
In the United States, 11 people have died from the virus and there are more than 150 confirmed cases. This week, Congress passed a $7.8 billion spending plan to combat the disease and California declared a state of emergency. Early Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 700 points due to rising concerns over the outbreak.
Further, CNN reports that worldwide, nearly 300 million schoolchildren across 13 countries have been out of school because of the coronavirus, which is unprecedented, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
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Despite the alarm raised by medical professionals the world over, President Trump continues to play down the growing outbreak. When the World Health Organization warned that coronavirus has a 3.4 percent mortality rate, Trump said the news was “false.” Trump claims the rate is under 1 percent. “This is really my hunch,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post.
