Twitter tells staff to work from home

Social media giant Twitter has told its employees to work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The firm's head of human resources Jennifer Christie said they are now "strongly encouraging" all of its 5,000 employees around the world to work from home.

"We recognise that working from home is not ideal for some job functions. For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business," she added.

In a Tweet, chief executive Jack Dorsey explained that the decision is based "out of an abundance of caution and care".

Out of an abundance of caution and care, both @Twitter and @Square are taking significant measures to help lower the probability of spread of #coronavirus #covid19, including strongly encouraging all of our employees globally to work from home if able. More here:

— jack (@jack) March 3, 2020

The firm also announced it's increasingly deep cleaning and sanitising its offices.

Meanwhile, it is already mandatory for staff in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea to work remotely due to government restrictions.