Fears have caused the closures. which are becoming wide spread…
Education and the world’s economies are going off-line in increasing numbers….
As cases of coronavirus disease continue to be identified in countries around the world, the effort to stem its spread has kept some 290 million students home from school.
According to the United Nations, as of Tuesday, 22 countries on three continents have closed schools because of the virus.
“We are working with countries to assure the continuity of learning for all, especially disadvantaged children and youth who tend to be the hardest hit by school closures,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement. “While temporary school closures as a result of health and other crises are not new unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.”
Thirteen countries have closed schools nationwide. China by far has the most students affected: more than 233 million.
Other large countries that have closed schools nationwide include Japan, Iran, Italy, Iraq and North Korea. Small countries have, too: Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Armenia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates have all shuttered their schools….
At Facebook on Thursday, the questions from spooked employees came thick and fast.
The evening before, the social network had disclosed that a contractor in its Seattle office had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and had said that all employees in that city should work from home until March 31.
Other Facebook employees, some of whom had recently traveled for work, soon began asking their managers and one another: Who was the contractor? Had that person been near them? And what did that mean for their work?
That same alarm has now spread through other companies around the world, despite escalating efforts by many of the firms to deal with disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak that started in China. Microsoft, Amazon, Ford Motor, CNN, Citigroup and Twitter have put employees through work-from-home drills, dusted off emergency-response plans and implemented increasingly stringent safety measures to protect their workers.
Even so, the coronavirus has moved faster than their preparations. Amazon said this week that two employees in Europe, who had been in Milan, were infected with the virus and that one employee at its Seattle headquarters had also tested positive for it. HSBC said on Thursday that an employee at its global headquarters in London had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. And AT&T said a retail employee at one of its stores in San Diego had also tested positive.
The challenges faced by workplaces have become a new front in the battle over the coronavirus, which has spawned more than 90,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths around the world. While factories in China had already been closed by the outbreak and are now just ramping back up, global white-collar companies have rarely grappled with this scale of disruption — or the level of fear that has gripped workers….
Note…
Will the world be hidden from existence in their home’s for the next 12 months?
Congress cleared an $8.3 billion emergency spending package Thursday that’s intended to bolster public health resources and assuage fears as the novel coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.
The Senate voted 96-1 following limited debate on the legislation, sending it to President Donald Trump who is expected to sign it quickly. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wanted the cost offset with cuts to foreign assistance programs, was the chamber’s lone “no” vote.
[House OKs $8.3 billion coronavirus aid package with little debate]
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., made it clear that Congress was ready to provide even more funding if necessary, though he noted lawmakers added substantially to the White House’s initial $2.5 billion proposal….
More….
Breaking…
I appears Italy is ordering it’s people to stay home unless they are getting food, drugs or money…..
How about drug money? You know who is big over there..
Trump to make a national talk to the nation tonight @9:00PM….
uggh just what we need
Unless he resigns he won’t make anything better.
True THAT!