Biggest risk is not the virus but stockpiling
Facebook has closed its London office after an employee was diagnosed with coronavirus.
The social network told staff to work from home yesterday after the worker tested positive for Covid-19.
The company said the employee was normally based in Singapore but visited the company’s offices in London between February 24 and 26.
It said the office would be closed until Monday with deep cleaning taking place over the weekend.
Confirming the London closure, a Facebook spokesman said: “An employee based in our Singapore office who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 visited our London offices 24-26 February 2020.
“We are therefore closing our London offices until Monday for deep cleaning and employees are working from home until then.”
The government has been too slow to react to fears over food shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak sparking panic buying across the UK, industry experts have claimed.
And this weekend could prove to be the biggest test for food retailers since the virus hit the UK. Industry experts believe shoppers are now entering panic mode and will flock to stores to stock-pile certain products.
Jason Molins, a food industry analyst at Goodbody, said: “There’s no doubt this is going to be a big weekend for the supermarkets and food suppliers. People are panicking as they see the numbers of confirmed cases go up every day.
“It’s not so much the virus itself that will lead to empty shelves, it’s the panic buying that could cause problems.”
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which is representing the supermarkets’ position on coronavirus, attempted to head off fears that supermarkets would soon be suffering food shortages. A spokesman for the BRC added that panic buying is the biggest risk to food running short on the shelves.
He said: “There has been some very high demand for hygiene and long life food products. The biggest challenge to supermarkets is when consumer demand goes up significantly. However, at the moment supermarkets have enough stock of what customers need. Retailers are continuing to monitor their supply chains and have robust plans.”