Coronavirus: Companies Including Twitter and Amazon Join U.S. in Restricting Travel

As more travel restrictions to and from several locations are set by several countries and airlines, several companies are also taking measures to prevent further contamination.

Nonessential Travel Banned

As COVID-19 has been spreading, travel restrictions are being implemented at all parts of the world, resulting in many flights canceled, and as a result, several flight plans were also removed temporarily until the situation calms down. The US is expanding its initial travel restrictions from Iran, now taking into consideration Italy and South Korea, as well as new screening procedures for anyone arriving from “high-risk countries.”

The travel advisory for both Italy and South Korea has been raised to the highest level – Level 4, by the US, with the advice that Americans should do their best to avoid specific regions in the country with high levels of threat, Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also added that the goal of the travel restrictions is to not completely remove, but lower the pure amount of people coming in and from high-risk regions in order to contain the virus and its spread.

The total amount of infections of the new coronavirus in the US has reached almost 100, per the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering’s Centers for Systems Science and Engineering’s latest numbers. Two patients have already died to the novel virus, both in Washington state.

Several large companies have also joined in on the travel restrictions to limit the spread of the virus, more notably Amazon, Twitter, Home Depot, Target and Plexus Corp.

Amazon and Twitter made similar statements when addressing their employees and the travel restrictions, with Amazon telling its employees to “defer nonessential travel during this time,” and Twitter announcing its suspension Sunday of all “noncritical business travel and events.”