Centre Instructs Employees to Work from Home as COVID-19 Cases Rise to 167

New Delhi, March 19, 2020:

Centre on Thursday issued an order asking several employees serving across various departments run by the central government to work from home till April 4.

The Government initiative came amid rising cases of COVID-19 in India, which has triggered a health crisis in the country. According to the order issued by the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the heads of departments (HODs) will have to ensure that 50 percent of Group B and C employees attend office on a regular basis and the remaining 50 percent should work from home.

“All HODs are advised to draft a weekly roster of duty for Group B and C staff and ask them to attend office on alternate weeks. While deciding the roster for the first week, HoDs are advised to include officials who are residing in close proximity to their office or use their own transport to travel to the offices, read the order issued by the Centre.

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The Centre has also ordered the HODs to ensure that the working hours for all employees attending office on a particular day are staggered.  The first shift can stand from 9 am to 5:30 pm, the next one from 9.30 am to 6 pm while the last shift timings can be from 10 am to 6.30 pm.

Those who are working from home on a particular day as per the roster drawn up “should be available on telephone and electronic means of communication at all times. They should attend office, if called for any exigency of work," the order said.

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The employees engaged in essential or emergency services and those directly engaged in taking measures to control the spread of COVID-19 have been excluded from the purview of the order issued on Thursday.

It may be mentioned here that these measures have been adopted to control the spread of coronavirus. In the private sector, several companies across India have already asked employees to work from home as far as possible.

India has recorded a total of 167 cases of COVID-19. Four people have died of the virus so far. The fresh case of the virus has been reported from Punjab.

219,265 people have been infected with the novel coronavirus globally, out of which, 124,552 are currently active or currently infected cases and 6,814  are in critical condition. 8,969 people have died so far according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Earlier today, Italy recorded 475 deaths, the highest number in 24 hours due to novel coronavirus or COVID-19 in the country, taking the overall death toll to 2,978.

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