Just hours after India's first death from the coronavirus was confirmed, search engine giant Google also announced that one of its employees from Bengaluru tested positive for COVID-19, ANI has reported.
As a precautionary measure, the US-headquartered tech giant has declared a work-from-home policy for its employees at the Bengaluru office in India.
Google: We can confirm that an employee from our Bengaluru office has been diagnosed with COVID-19. He was in one of our Bengaluru offices for a few hours before developing any symptoms. The employee has been on quarantine since then. #CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/lQxQWc8rg2
— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2020
Google has not yet officially posted the news to its social media handles, however, media outlets have acquired copies of an internal email that was shared among employees at the Bengaluru office.
Anand Rangrajan, Director of engineering and site lead for the Bengaluru office said in the email, “We are sorry to report that we have one confirmed case of a Bangalore-based Googler testing positive for COVID-19", the media has reported.
Rangrajan also informed Google employees that the infected worker contracted the virus after travelling abroad recently.
Further details surrounding the health status of the Google India employee remains undisclosed on public platforms at the moment.
Google is known to now have two cases of COVID-19, the first of which was reported from its Zurich-based office.
According to the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has recorded 75 positive cases of coronavirus or COVID-19, and confirmed the first death in the nation.
Government of India confirms first death due to #Coronavirus in Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/34SgYnPe3u
— Radhika Parashar (@radhika_says) March 13, 2020
Earlier this week, the United Nations’s World Health Oranisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus a pandemic. At present, over 128,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus across the world.
As a precautionary measure, India has suspended all foreign visas except diplomatic, official, UN/International Organisations, employment, project visas. It as also advised that its nationals presently abroad avoid non-essential travel.
