Job recruitment company Indeed closes its Sydney office and orders hundreds of employees to work from from home over coronavirus scare
- Job search website Indeed closed its offices in Sydney, Dublin and Singapore
- On Monday, more than 1000 staff members were ordered to work from home
- Closures came as a Singapore worker may have been exposed to the coronavirus
Job search website Indeed has told all of its Australian workers to stay at home amid concerns an employee may have come into contact with the coronavirus.
The employment platform closed three offices on Monday, ordering more than 1,000 staff in Dublin, Sydney, and Singapore to work from home.
The shutdown was sparked after a worker from the Singapore office alerted management they ‘may have been exposed to coronavirus’ after relatives visited a facility caring for affected patients, a company spokesperson told Fortune.
Job listing site Indeed has closed its Sydney office (pictured) as a precautionary measure after a worker in Singapore ‘may have been exposed to coronavirus’.
‘While there are no confirmed cases of infection, out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our employees, we have asked all employees in Singapore, along with anyone who has recently visited our Singapore offices, to work from home until February 17th,’ the spokesperson said.
No Indeed employees have tested positive for the virus but workers in Australia and Ireland have been barred from headquarters as some employees who recently visited Singapore also travelled to the Dublin and Sydney offices.
As of Tuesday, there are 40,546 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide, with a death toll of 910.
While Ireland is yet to report a single case, Australia has recorded 15 confirmed cases the past two months, across four states.
The recruitment service is the latest in a string of companies to close shop as a precaution to stop the spread of the disease.
On January 31, Google announced it would temporarily close all of its offices in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
People wearing surgical masks in central district of Hong Kong as a preventative measure following the Coronavirus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan
Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, General Motors and Tesla, have also joined the crack down, putting staff travel restrictions in place for China.
Eleven million people living in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, remain in lockdown, with many flights cancelled and medical supplies dwindling.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s advice is ‘do not travel’ to China, with 530 Australians having since been evacuated and placed in quarantine centres.
The economic impacts of the illness, dubbed 2019-nCoV, have rippled across the global, adversely affecting many industries.
Chinese tourist numbers have dropped worldwide, with the outbreak predicted to cost China $60billion during the first quarter of 2020.
In Australia, the fishing industry has been hit hard as demand from China, a major importer, has halted, and retailers are suffering from supply shortages.