Many events, including press conferences, internal company events and National Days, have been cancelled in the Capital to avoid public gatherings due to COVID-19 outbreak.
A large number of firms are promoting work-from-home among employees, while suspending foreign travel and limiting domestic travel for workers.
Precautionary measures
IT firm Tech Mahindra said it has issued a detailed employee advisory and are undertaking various preventive measures. “We have mobilised a panel of doctors on standby across all locations who are educating employees on the dos and don’ts. Restrictions have been imposed on domestic and international travel with immediate effect,” Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra, said.
The company has also postponed all internal events that required large gatherings and had advised everyone to leverage technologies like tele presence and videoconferencing.
Likewise, Wizikey, a provider of SaaS platform for PR firms, said 80% of employees are now working from home and those coming to the office are being provided with masks and sanitisers.
“We have put up an hourly reminder of ‘WHO guidelines for workspaces’ like washing hands, avoiding touching mouth, eyes and nose, maintaining social distance, etc. We are checking body temperature in the morning for all our employees,” Wizikey founder and CEO Anshul Sushil said.
Amid increasing anxiousness with regards to the spread of COVID-19, two of the major smartphone makers — Realme and Xiaomi, cancelled on-ground events for their new product launches. Realme, whose event was scheduled for Thursday at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, launched its Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro smartphones via a webcast.
“In light of current reports of #coronavirus impact & related advisory by health officials to maintain social distance as a precautionary measure, I’m calling off our biggest event. Will still give live speech in stadium with you watching #realme6series event online,” Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth had tweeted.
Similarly, Xiaomi vice-president and India Managing Director Manu Jain said the company won’t be holding any launch events on-ground in March. “While we have been planning for this launch for months, we believe this is an unprecedented yet extremely important step.”
Mr. Jain said the decision was taken with the objective of reducing exposure risk to COVID-19 for Mi fans, media friends, partners and Xiaomi employees.
“We are operating out of abundant caution and our dedication to keeping all of you healthy,” he said.
Embassy of Italy also cancelled their National Day event scheduled for March 17 in the Capital. Auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra, which was to host the 10th edition of Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards 2020 in New Delhi to honour the heroes of Indian agriculture, postponed the event “due to unavoidable circumstances”.
Holi function
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday announced that it will cancel its ‘Holi event’ scheduled for March 8 “in view of COVID-19 outbreak and the appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
“Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme,” the PM had tweeted on March 4.
Not just in Delhi, but events in other parts of the country have also dropped. Amazon Web Services (AWS) cancelled its Mumbai Summit scheduled for April 7-9 “due to the continued concerns about COVID-19... We’ve reached this decision after much consideration, as the health and safety of our employees, customers, and partners are our top priority,” a company spokesperson said.
