- Hong Kong government asks civil servants to work from home and urges private sector to follow suit
- PricewaterhouseCoopers, some law firms and some divisions of Hong Kong stock exchange have already rolled out similar plans
Most Hong Kong civil servants will be asked to work from home for the rest of this week to minimise the threat of the Wuhan coronavirus spreading in the wider community, the government declared on Tuesday, as it urged the private sector to follow suit.
The arrangement, which will not apply to those who provide urgent and necessary public services, will start from Wednesday to Sunday (February 2), pending a review by then.
There are about 176,000 civil servants in Hong Kong.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department also announced the shutting down of all sports centres, public swimming pools, museums, and libraries from Tuesday until further notice.
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Businesses based in Hong Kong have also started to roll out plans to allow employees to work from home or extend the Lunar New Year holiday.
Bloomberg has asked employees in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai to work from home "until further notice", according to an internal memo issued on Monday. The firm said official trips to mainland China and Hong Kong had been cancelled, while employees returning from mainland or Hong Kong would work remotely for two weeks.
Some divisions in the Hong Kong stock exchange also allowed their staff to work from home until further notice, a source said.
Major law firms, such as Linklaters, have asked their staff to work from home until February 10 respectively. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has extended Lunar New Year leave from January 28 to January 31, effectively extending the first working day to February 3.
More to follow…
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