The novel coronavirus pandemic, which according to China broke globally but was reported by them first, forced everyone to be indoors and take necessary precautions to control the spread of the virus.
As per the guidelines prescribed amid the pandemic, most companies were either forced to shut down or the employees worked from home.
Now, as the unlocking process has begun, offices have resumed and many people have started going to their workplaces. Although, there are some companies that have still asked their employees to work from home.
Meanwhile, New York Times' senior journalist Kenneth P. Vogel took to Twitter and said that the media house has asked them to work from home till June 2021. Citing an internal email, Vogel wrote, "July 6, 2021 is now the earliest date we will require people to return to any of our offices worldwide. Though we had hoped to begin a broader return to the office in the new year, it’s clear that the continued uncertainty…has kept such a move out of reach".
Buzzfeed News' Deputy Director David Mack quote tweeted Vogel and said that his company is not calling their employees to the office until September next year. "we are not required back until sept next year. they told us at the start of august so everyone had a full year to leave the city or do whatever. daunting but helpful," he wrote. "instead i just renewed my tiny apartment lease," he added.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing this piece it isn't clear whether the companies have actually permitted the extended 'work from home', however, one should not be optimistic of the opposite.
Besides, the overall number of global coronavirus cases neared the 37.4 million mark, while the deaths have soared to more than 1,075,700, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
As of Monday morning, the total number of cases stood at 37,395,029 and the fatalities increased to 1,075,750, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 7,761,637 and 214,767, respectively, according to the CSSE.
India comes in second place in terms of cases at 7,053,806, while the country's death toll soared to 108,334.
The other top 15 countries with the maximum amount of cases are Brazil (5,094,979), Russia (1,291,687), Colombia (911,316), Argentina (894,206), Spain (861,112), Peru (846,088), Mexico (817,503), France (732,434), South Africa (692,471), the UK (606,447), Iran (500,075), Chile (479,595), Iraq (402,330), Bangladesh (378,266), and Italy (354,950), the CSSE figures showed.
Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 150,488.
The countries with a death toll above 10,000 are Mexico (83,781), the UK (42,915), Italy (36,166), Peru (33,223), Spain (32,929), France (32,601), Iran (28,544), Colombia (27,834), Argentina (23,868), Russia (22,471), South Africa (17,780), Chile (13,272), Ecuador (12,191), Indonesia (11,844) and Belgium (10,175).
(With IANS inputs)
