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Updated: Mar 18, 2020 20:54 IST

Coronavirus infection threat has made Uttarakhand government order all State employees to work from home for a period of eight days beginning Thursday, March 19, with the exception of departments of health, police, transport, food and water supply, electricity and sanitation, said a new agency report.

Uttarakhand is the first state to issue ‘work-from-home’ directive to employees in the wake of the threat posed by COVID 19, a few other states have issued advisories and not orders for people to work from home.

“Only employees whose presence in offices is very necessary shall be called to office”. The order will be effective from March 19 to March 25,” ANI quoted an excerpt from the order.

The development follows advisory by the Central government asking private firms to let employees work from home in order to ensure social distancing.

IT industry firms have taken the lead in enforcing ‘work-from-home’ regimen for its employees. In Karnataka, which is one of the biggest hubs of IT companies, the government issued a strict advisory to Bengaluru-based tech firms to allow employees to work from home citing air-conditioned environments’ alleged high potential for spreading the virus.

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Five out of the seven people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Karnataka are related to the IT sector.

Walmart-owned Flipkart and Infosys Ltd along with other technology firms have extended work-from-home option to all those who needn’t be in the office.

Similar measures have been adopted in Gurugram, one of the largest corporate hubs in north India, where firms have been advised to go into ‘work from home’ mode following an appeal by Haryana government earlier this week.

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Uttar Pradesh government is also actively considered the option and a three-member committee has been headed by the Chief Secretary of the State has been tasked with the matter.

However, a recent report by a leading IT service management firm named Gartner says 54 per cent of the companies in India do not have enough technology and resources for employees to work from home.