HSBC evacuates their UK headquarters after an employee has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
The bank cleared out the entire research department as well as a section of the trading floor at its 45-floor skyscraper in Canary Wharf, according to Financial News.
It came after an employee in the research department informed the bank over the weekend that they had been diagnosed with the virus, sources told Reuters.
Members of staff who came into contact with the reportedly infected employee were sent home and the area is being deep cleaned.
HSBC employs roughly 40,000 people in the UK, with around 10,000 of those employees being based at the Canary Wharf office block.
It comes a day after accounting firm Deloitte had workers sent home from its London offices after a colleague tested positive for coronavirus following a trip to Asia.
As of this morning, 90 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK after Scotland has reported three more cases, but the number is expected to increase yet again throughout the day.
Professor Chris Whitty England’s chief medical officer earlier announced that the UK has now mainly moved into the ‘delay’ phase of tackling coronavirus.
Whitty has said that community transmission between those who have had no connections to overseas cases or returning travellers is now ‘highly likely’.
He added: ‘We have moved from a situation where we are mainly in contain, with some delay built in, to we are now mainly delay.’ It means measures to tackle coronavirus are are being increased to delay its spread.
The action plan put in place by the government, says on the delay:
‘Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies (such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings) to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population, while ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as possible.’
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