Bengaluru: Leading IT firm Infosys temporarily shut one of its Bengaluru offices on Saturday after an employee is suspected to have been infected with the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, according to reports. Infosys confirmed it had evacuated the building, on a priority basis, and would sanitise the premises. Infosys has also requested its employees to not believe in or spread misinformation on social media.
The IT major’s actions come after a Karnataka government advisory to all IT and biotech firms in Bengaluru to allow employees to work from homes for a week to avoid the infection spreading. India has reported two deaths due to the coronavirus so far – a 68-year-old Delhi resident became the country’s second victim on Friday. The total number of people infected with coronavirus has climbed to 85 in India. Many others who show symptoms of having contracted the coronavirus have been told to stay at home at least for 14 days, the period during which the symptoms could subside or intensify.
“To ensure preparedness, we are evacuating only the IIPM building as a precautionary measure on receiving information that a team member from the building may have been in proximity to COVID-19 suspect,” Gururaj Deshpande, the head of the IT major’s Bengaluru development centre,” told news agency IANS.
The US Embassy and Consulates in India have cancelled all visa appointments from March 16 in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.US President Donald Trump on Friday officially declared a national emergency that he said would give states and territories access to up to USD 50 billion in federal funds to combat coronavirus. A statement issued by the US Embassy said, “US Mission India posts, in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, are cancelling immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments from March 16, 2020, onward.”
