‘Concerned companies should enforce work-from-home policies to keep contagion down’
More than 62 per cent of Americans are worried about the coronavirus and the number one reason is that they work in an open office, found a survey by public-relations firm Bospar.
A majority of respondents (52.9 per cent) think open offices will lead to an uptick of the coronavirus infection while 41 per cent of them think their open office will be a hotbed of infection, according to the survey.
“Open office spaces are among the worst for COVID-19, particularly if they are sealed office spaces without open ventilation and the air is just recirculated within the building,” says Dr. E. Hanh Le, senior director of medical affairs at Healthline. “That’s because, like with other communicable airborne illnesses, COVID-19 is spread from coughing, sneezing or talking as the virus travels through respiratory drops. Current data suggests that the virus may also survive on surfaces for several hours, if not days, but we do not know that definitively yet.”
Most Americans (51.4 per cent) also believe that viruses like COVID-19 and the flu will lead to more companies adopting virtual offices, but only 37.7 per cent believe that viruses like the coronavirus and the flu will lead to open offices going away. More than a third of Americans (35.9 per cent) think companies should immediately make their employees work from home to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, according to the survey of 1,014 U.S. adults between February 29 and March 1.
“To reduce the risk of spreading infection, concerned companies should enforce work-from-home policies to keep contagion down,” says Hanh Le.
Twitter this week said it was “strongly encouraging” employees to work from home in an effort to contain the outbreak.
About 55 per cent of Americans are worried about contracting the coronavirus this year and 42.9 per cent are worried they will contract it in a few weeks. More than a third of Americans (35.4 per cent) are worried the coronavirus will kill them and 45.8 per cent are worried the coronavirus will kill a loved one, found Bospar.
