What Amazon, Twitter, Wipro and other companies are doing to cope with COVID-19

Coronavirus

Multiple companies have offered employees the option to work from home, or have put restrictions on travel.

Haripriya Suresh

Picxy/Munna

Amazon became the latest in a list of companies recommending employees to work from home, as coronavirus continues to spread with 85 active cases in India. On Friday, Amazon India informed employees to work from home if they can till the end of the month. “We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve. As a result, we are now recommending that all of our employees globally who are able to work from home, do so through the end of March,” an Amazon India spokesperson told TNM. In an email to employees, Amazon stated that it was recommending that all employees who work in a role that can be done from home, do so till the end of March. “Every team is different and not all work may be conducive to working from home, so please talk with your manager and your team to establish expectations on working remotely,” the company said.  This comes a day after Flipkart gave young parents the option to work from home, due to schools being closed by the government as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.  The Karnataka government on Friday also asked IT and biotech employees to work from home for a week. "In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, we are requesting all IT and biotech employees to work from home for a week," said Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, following a high level meeting with health officials. On Thursday, Twitter put all of its employees, globally, on a mandatory work-from-home. In addition, Twitter said that it would be paying their contractors, vendors and hourly workers who can’t work from home, reimbursement for additional daycare expenses incurred by parents and reimbursement towards setting up a home office.  On March 4, software giant Wipro announced that it suspended employee travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau. The company also said that any employee who has travelled to an affected place in China in the last few days has been advised to work from home for 14 days before resuming work in office. "We have advised our employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently," said Wipro. “We have enabled work-from-home in the affected regions to minimise the risk of others getting infected,” the company told the Economic Times.  HCL Technologies also said earlier this month that it has invoked an epidemic contingency plan in the impacted geographies and is providing full support to employees, wherever possible. One of Google’s employees in Bengaluru tested positive for coronavirus, and employees in that office were asked to work from home on Friday. Colleagues of the patient who were in close contact with the employee were asked to quarantine themselves and monitor their health. BloombergQuint reported that Hindustan Unilever, Godrej Industries, ITC Ltd and others have put restrictions on travel.  Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath tweeted on Thursday that to reduce the chance of any virus spreading, all employees were told to work from home. “For smooth business continuity, the safety of our employees, and to reduce the chance of any virus spreading due to working in large groups at our offices, we're executing mandatory work from home for our entire team of ~1200,” he tweeted. On Friday, an Infosys employee from an office in Bengaluru was said to have come in contact with someone suspected to have coronavirus; the company evacuated the building as a precautionary measure. 

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Son of Karnataka man who died due to COVID-19 contradicts health officials

Coronavirus

In a press conference on Thursday, health officials in Karnataka stated that the family of the 76-year-old man discharged him from a private hospital in Kalaburagi against their advice.

TNM Staff

Image for representation / PTI

The son of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi in Karnataka, who was recorded as India's first coronavirus death, criticised health officials in Karnataka for their handling of his father's health. He denied the statements made by officials of the Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department, that the family of the 76-year-old man went against medical advice to discharge him from a private hospital in Kalaburagi and shift him to Care Hospital in Hyderabad on March 10. Speaking to Gulbarga Live, he said, “If they had told us to go to Gulbarga Institute of Medical Science (GIMS) we would have gone there. I did not know there was an isolated ward there. From 4 am to 2 pm, we kept going around Hyderabad. The patient was struggling for water. I hold the health department here responsible. They did not inform us properly, that is why my father died." GIMS houses one of the laboratories in Karnataka designated for testing samples for coronavirus. In a press conference on Thursday, Karnataka Health Minister Sriramulu said that the family of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi discharged him from a private hospital in Kalaburagi against the advice given by health officials.  The 76-year-old arrived in India from Saudi Arabia on February 29. He was admitted in a private hospital in Kalaburagi on March 9. His samples were collected for testing in Kalaburagi before he was shifted to Care Hospital in Hyderabad. “Without waiting for the test results, the attendees insisted and the patient was discharged against medical advice (DAMA) and the attendees took him to a private hospital in Hyderabad,” the Health Department’s statement said. On March 10, the man was being brought back to Kalaburagi in an ambulance when he was declared dead. Results of the tests on his samples were confirmed to be positive on Thursday, making him the first recorded death due to the virus in the country.  However, the son of the man contradicted the claims of the Karnataka Health Department. “On the night of March 8, he started coughing a lot after midnight. We called the doctor and he advised us to take him to a hospital immediately. We went to a chest specialist, but he did not give any response and asked us to go to Sunrise hospital. There, around 11 am (on March 9), the X-ray results came, they told us he is okay and that they will treat him. At 4 pm, a CT scan was done. After that, they told us he is in serious condition and asked us to go to Hyderabad immediately,” the son said.  “We told them we do not want to go to Hyderabad, we will treat him here itself. But they said no and forced us to go to Hyderabad. Then, since we were helpless, we went,” he added.  The son also stated that he visited Gandhi and Apollo hospitals in Hyderabad before turning to Care Hospital where he admits he did not mention visiting the first two hospitals in Hyderabad. The man from Kalaburagi was admitted in Care Hospital but he was soon asked to leave. According to the son, the hospital authorities got to know that the patient had visited two other hospitals in Hyderabad. The son stated that they received a call from health officials in Kalaburagi asking them to bring his father back to the district. “We asked why they did not tell us before, we would have never left. Then they asked us to come back. Kalaburagi DHO Jabbar called and we said okay. At the time his (father’s) heart was still beating. Later when I went there we found out that he had passed away,” says the son.  The son vehemently denied claims that the patient was taken to Hyderabad against the advice of health officials in Kalaburagi. “This is absolutely false. They forced us to take him to Hyderabad. Sunrise Hospital President forced us. If they had told us to go to GEMS we would have gone. I did not know there was an isolated ward there. From 4 am to 2 pm, we kept going around Hyderabad. The patient was struggling for water. I hold the health department here responsible. They did not inform us properly, that is why my father died,” said the son. Read: Family shifted man who died of COVID-19 to Hyderabad pvt hospital against govt advice

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4 things to know about Trump's emergency plan on coronavirus

The various policy moves have left many questions unanswered.

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Infosys evacuates one of its Bengaluru offices over coronavirus concern

Coronavirus

The step was taken after one employee working there had come in touch with a coronavirus positive person.

Soumya Chatterjee

PTI/ File image

    Information Technology major Infosys on Friday asked its employees working out of one of their office buildings in Electronic City Phase 2 in Bengaluru to leave after they were informed that an employee had been in contact with a COVID-19 patient. The office was subsequently sanitized as a “precautionary measure”. An Infosys statement said, “Infosys has taken a decision to evacuate one of our satellite buildings as a precautionary measure, as one of our employees had been in contact with an individual with suspected COVID-19. Please note that this is to ensure the safety of our employees and undertake a comprehensive disinfection exercise at our facility. “ It added, “Employees have been directed to work from home, and there is no impact on our client deliverables as a result of this temporary evacuation.” An internal communication addressed to all employees working in the office which was doing the rounds advised its employees not to share rumours over social media. As things stand, five positive cases of coronavirus have been detected in Bengaluru. Among the five— three of them are IT professionals working in Dell, Google and Mindtree. The two other are the wife and daughter of the Dell employee. While the Mindtree and Dell employee had returned from the United States via London and Dubai respectively, the Google techie had returned from Greece where he was on holiday with his wife. Incidentally, the first death of a coronavirus positive person from India was reported from Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, as earlier reported. He had returned via Hyderabad from Saudi Arabia on February 29 and had been admitted to a hospital on March 9 after his symptoms had aggravated, according to the Karnataka Health Department statement. Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has issued a directive asking all IT firms to implement work from home policy for the coming week and a partial lockdown has been ordered across the state.

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Mall, local store, theatre and office: Where the 6 COVID-19 patients in Karnataka went

People who were at these locations have to inform the government in order to curb the transmission of coronavirus.

Haripriya Suresh

The Karnataka government released information on Friday outlining the places visited by all six coronavirus patients in the state for contact tracing. Places visited by these six patients include restaurants, malls and local stores.  “Public is requested to call 104 helpline and inform the department on their presence at the place and time mentioned. This will help us in better contact tracing and further transmission of novel coronavirus in the community,” the state government said in a statement. Contact tracing is crucial as it helps curb the spread of the virus.  Patient 6 is deceased, and the other five patients, the government said, are in isolation and are stable. Bengaluru’s first case of coronavirus was a techie who travelled from Austin, Texas. He took a flight from Austin to the John F Kennedy Airport in New York, where he landed on February 28 at 4.11 pm, and where he stayed till 11.30 pm. From New York, he took a flight to Dubai, where he was present from 8.25 pm on February 29 to 3.40 am on March 1. At 8.50 am, he landed at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport.  From the airport, he reached his home in Whitefield at 11 am. For lunch, he visited Biryani Paradise at 2 pm.  On March 2, between 2 pm and 3 pm, he visited the Loyal City Supermarket in Whitefield. Later that evening, he visited his workplace — Dell’s office in Divyashree Greens at 4 pm, where he remained till 10 pm.  The next morning, on March 3, he watched a movie at Forum Value Mall, which is located in Forum Whitefield, at 10 am. Following this, he went to work at 2 pm, where he remained until 10.30 pm.  Two days later, on March 5, he visited the RxDx clinic, at 10.30 am, after being referred to by Manipal Hospital. He reached his home in Whitefield at 3.30pm. He remained at home on March 6 and 7.  On March 8, he visited the Mediwave Medical Store and Loyal Supermarket in Whitefield at 2.30 pm, and got admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases later that evening.  The techie’s wife and child are the second and third patients to have tested positive for the coronavirus in Bengaluru.  The techie’s wife met her husband on March 1 at 1 pm, and then visited the market. They both visited Biryani Paradise, at 2 pm, following which she visited a friend who lives in the same apartment at 5.30. The next day, March 2, she went for a walk on the apartment campus with a friend.  On March 3, she watched a movie along with her husband at Forum, visited another mall at 1 pm, and returned home by 2 pm. The same evening, she took a walk with her friend on the apartment campus.  She stayed home between March 4 and March 7, and took the same walk as before on March 7 at 5.30 pm. On March 8, she visited the Mediwave Medical Store and Loyal City Supermarket with the husband in the afternoon, and met the washerman (dhobi) at 8.30 pm. After this, she was admitted to RGICD.  The third patient is their child, who primarily visited the mall with her parents, went to school, attended tuition classes and played in the apartment complex between March 1 and March 8. The child was admitted to RGICD at 8 pm.  The fourth patient arrived in India on March 8 at 4:30 am from the USA in a flight which came via London. Upon landing and reaching his Bengaluru residence, the patient visited RGICD at 2:30 pm and his samples were collected for testing. A day later on March 9, he was taken in an ambulance to RGICD where he was admitted.  The fifth patient arrived at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from Greece on March 6 at 11:55 pm. After reaching his Mumbai residence, he travelled to Bengaluru by flight on March 8 at 9:45 pm. He reached his residence in Bengaluru at 11:30 pm.  He remained at home on March 9 and he visited RGICD at 5:55 pm on March 10. His sample was sent for testing. He was admitted to the Jayanagar General Hospital a day later. He is currently being monitored by a BBMP surveillance team.  The movement history of the sixth patient given is that of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi in Karnataka, who has confirmed to be Karnataka’s first coronavirus casualty. He arrived at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on February 29 at 12:30 pm from Saudi Arabia. On the day he landed, he had tea at Patancheru, Hyderabad and dined at a dhaba near the petrol bunk at Kamalapur in Kalaburagi before reaching home at 5 pm.  He remained at home till March 5. On March 9, he was admitted to a private hospital in Kalaburagi at 10 am and his sample was collected for testing. On the same night, against the advice of the health department, he was discharged from the hospital. He travelled to Hyderabad and was admitted in Care Hospital. On March 10, he travelled back to Kalaburagi in an ambulance. On the way, he was declared dead by officials at Gulbarga Institute of Medical Science. With inputs from Prajwal Bhat

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Top executives of IKEA and Lockheed Martin meet Chief Minister Yediyurappa

Business

IKEA may soon finalise its Bengaluru store, while Lockheed Martin is looking to expand their manufacturing in Karnataka, according to sources.

TNM Staff

Swedish furniture maker IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) is planning to open its first store in Bengaluru, according to officials of the Commerce and Industries Department. Sources said this development comes after a meeting between Managing Director of IKEA India Peter Betzel, and Lockheed Martin Vice President and Chief Executive of India William Blair. on Thursday. “IKEA had internal discussions about opening more than one centre in Bengaluru. They are yet to make a decision on this and this was discussed with the CM on Thursday,” a top official in the Commerce and Industries Department told TNM. As of now, IKEA has a store in Hyderabad and they are also in talks to launch a store in Navi Mumbai.  Earlier, IKEA had said that they will invest Rs 1,000 crore for the store and this will lead to direct employment of 800 employees and another 1,500 indirect employees are also likely to benefit. As reported earlier, the shop will be of around 4,00,000 sq ft area and will come in Nagasandra behind the Metro Station.  The Hyderabad store is also of the same size.  The source in the Commerce and Industries Ministry told TNM that the two executives paid a courtesy call to the CM and discussed certain issues with him regarding the expansion of their companies’ operations in Karnataka.  The source said that the Lockheed Martin Executive discussed with the CM the possibilities of expanding their manufacturing activities in Karnataka. “They know the Karnataka aerospace ecosystem and are looking to expand their operations in Karnataka. This was a courtesy call and more will be decided in a future meeting,” the official said. Lockheed Martin, a global leader in the aerospace sector and defence, is making F-16 Block 70 fighter jets in India along with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL).   

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After first COVID-19 death, Karnataka issues protocol for funeral procedures

Coronavirus

Officials say that both burial and cremation will be allowed to respect religious sentiments.

Theja Ram

The death of a 76-year-old man in Karnataka due to COVID-19 has raised several questions about the precautionary measures the state government is taking as far as burying the body is concerned. The Kalaburagi man’s death is the first in India due to the coronavirus. The Karnataka government has come up with a set of protocols to follow during the funeral procedure. Commissioner of the Health Department Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that the body of the 76-year-old man was disinfected and the burial was carried out in the presence of health workers with necessary precautionary measures. “This is the first death that has happened and we are following WHO (World Health Organisation) protocols for body disposal. But we must also respect the religious sentiments of people. In the case of the 76-year-old man, he was buried and his body was disinfected before burial. It was done by health workers in the presence of district officials. His family members were allowed to be present at a safe distance. The graveyard was sanitized as well,” he said. He said that both burial and cremation will be allowed in order to respect religious sentiments of people. What is the protocol for health workers during burial of the dead? The state government has prescribed certain procedures to be followed by health workers who will come into contact with the body of the patient. According to Dr BG Prakash, of the Health Department, the team handling dead bodies should wear protective gear and wash their hands with soap and disinfectant after touching the body. Sources from the health department said that the government wanted to ensure the “dead and bereaved must be respected at all times” and hence certain protocols have been issued for burials as certain religious communities do not cremate their loved ones who die. Crematoriums, however, will be disinfected after the cremation process.  The health workers must ensure that the graves must be at least 30m away from the ground water source. The bottom of a grave must be at least 1.5 m above the water table in addition to having a 0.7 m unsaturated zone. Surface water from graveyards must not be disposed off in inhabited areas. This means that water used in graveyards which later flows out as sewage must not mix with municipal sewage. “We are following these protocols to ensure that the burial does not lead to contamination of drinking water,” Dr Prakash added. Health workers must take precautions for disposal of gloves, body bags and disinfect the vehicles and equipment used while transporting the body from the isolation units to the graveyard. “Bodies of the dead do not generally need to be disinfected before disposal except in cases where the infection is severe. This is followed for viral infections generally. Since this is a pandemic, disinfecting the body is protocol. So far only one death has happened. We are trying to avoid having more deaths,” he said. Health Department Officials told TNM that so far, the protocols have been framed to handle individual burial cases only. “We don’t want to cause panic and have taken precautionary measures to reduce person-to-person contact as much as possible. There are procedures for mass burial and cremation. We will give those details if the situation arises. So far we are trying to contain the spread,” he said.  

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