Apple restricts employee travel to Italy and Korea, encourages virtual meetings due to coronavirus

Apple continues to restrict employee travel in response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Bloomberg reports today that Apple has put new travel restrictions in place for Italy and Korea, and is also making other recommendations to employees.

In a memo to employees today, Apple announced that it is instituting a new set of travel restrictions for Italy and South Korea. Employees are only allowed to travel to these regions, as well as China, for “business-critical reasons.” All requests must be approved by an Apple vice president as well, the report says.

Apple is also encouraging employees to use virtual meetings whenever possible:

“There are many ways to continue to manage our ongoing meetings and activities through calls and video,” Apple said in the email to workers. “If you do have travel planned, we suggest you work with your managers to consider delaying or canceling business travel which could be postponed or managed through virtual meetings.”

Furthermore, Apple also says that “deep cleaning protocols” are its top priority right now. This covers stores, offices, and employee shuttles, Apple says, and hand sanitizer stations have also been placed at the front of 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.” It also is encouraging workers to wash their hands, not touch their faces and cover their coughs.

As for WWDC 2020, Apple has not made any official announcements just yet. At this point, however, it’s growing increasingly likely that Apple will be forced to cancel the event. Just earlier today, Google announced that it will not host an in-person I/O 2020 over coronavirus concerns. Google I/O was scheduled for May 12-14.