After restricting employee travel to China, Apple is now doing the same for Italy and South Korea, due to concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
“We have instituted specific travel restrictions in a few countries including China, South Korea, and Italy,” the company told employees in a memo that outlines its latest response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Employees are only allowed to travel to those regions for business-critical reasons and must get approval from a company vice president, Apple told staff in messages viewed by Bloomberg News…
Apple also said “deep cleaning protocols are our top priority” and are in effect across its stores, offices and employee shuttles. It has since put hand sanitizer stations at the front of its stores as well.
The company’s memo also said that “any employee who is sick, in particular, anyone who has a fever or severe cough, should take sick leave until they have fully recovered.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s only prudent for Apple to restrict employee travel to COVID-19 hotspots.
Currently, according to the latest figures from Caixin, there are 80,303 confirmed cases in China, 47,260 recovered, 587 suspected cases, and 2,947 deaths. Confirmed cases outside of China total 11,896, with 184 deaths in 73 countries. Italy has had 2,036 cases and 52 deaths. South Korea has has 5,186 cases and 31 deaths.
The scariest number is that lethality in Iran is running about 4.6%. That is 46 times the rate from seasonal flu. It appears that Covid-19 is also somewhat more easily transmitted than ordinary flu.
Possibly due to not testing enough. Probably a lot infected running around untested. Add those and fatality drops. Latest estimates worldwide is death rate sub 1% maybe less than half %
Hopefully they can get vaccine out faster than 1 year estimate. Israeli firm says they got breakthrough.
Jerusalem Post
‘Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.
“Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. ‘
Figures now adjusted up by experts as they said there are fewer untested (fewer patients without symptoms) than first thought.
Xenophobes!!
XenGoeBophobes!