With new reports of coronavirus cases being diagnosed popping up around the US, Google has taken the step of asking all North American employees to work from home if they can. The recommendation lasts until at least April 10th. A number of large tech companies had already instituted similar policies in the northwest after an outbreak began in Washington, and Google had already given a similar guideline to Bay Area employees.

At about the same time, the company also banned advertisements for medical face masks for the time being, and established a COVID-19 that will pay for temporary staff and vendors to take sick leave if they have potential symptoms or are quarantined. In a tweet, CEO Sundar Pichai said "Contributing to social distancing if you are able to, helps the overall community spread and most importantly, will help offset the peak loads through critical healthcare systems and also saves it for people in need."