Google extends its remote work coronavirus advisory to Europe, Africa, and Middle East

Abner Li | Mar 11 2020 - 12:12 pm PT

Yesterday, Google asked all employees in the United States and Canada to work remotely if their roles allow. The company today is extending that coronavirus recommendation to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

According to Business Insider, Googlers in those three regions are being asked to work remotely starting tomorrow. This are 24 offices in Europe — including the UK and Russia — and five in the Africa and Middle East region.

The company’s first confirmed occurrence of COVID-19 was an employee in Zurich, while a suspected case in Dublin saw the company ask 8,000 workers in its European headquarters to work remotely.

In North America, the work from home advisory is in effect until April 10 though it could be extended. It applies to all employees except for those deemed “critical to business continuity.”

Hourly staff working in impacted offices will continue to be paid, while Google yesterday announced a fund to “enable all [its] temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms of COVID-19, or can’t come into work because they’re quarantined.”

Sundar Pichai said yesterday that this measure was Google doing its part to encourage social distancing to help reduce community spread of COVID-19. The company has already canceled its major Cloud Next and I/O 2020 developer conferences.