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Facebook is stopping employees from bringing social guests to work and cutting down on its on-site job interviews as fears mount over the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday, Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison told Business Insider: "We are taking steps to reduce the risk to our employees from the emerging COVID-19 situation, including temporarily halting social visitors to all of our offices. We continue to welcome business visitors as usual."
Social guests are visitors to Facebook's offices who aren't there for a work meeting — an employee might bring along a friend or spouse to the office to give them a tour or go for a free meal in one of its cafeterias.
The company is also conducting job interviews through videoconferencing when possible, he added, but there will still be some on-site interviews.
Since its outbreak in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has spread to dozens of countries around the world, sickening more than 88,000 people globally and killing nearly 3,000, with the vast majority of cases and deaths in China. It is also causing increasing disruption for global business, interrupting supply chains, and forcing the cancellation of major events.
