Facebook’s Seattle office is closed until at least Monday, March 9, after a contracted worker tested positive for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus.
CNBC reports that the worker was last at the office on February 21 and that March 9 would be the end of the infected contractor’s incubation period. The 5,000 workers at Facebook’s Seattle office have been advised to work from home until March 31, per King County’s guidance.
“A contractor based in our Stadium East office has been diagnosed with the COVID-19,” a spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “We’ve notified our employees and are following the advice of public health officials to prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”
Seattle has, by far, seen the most coronavirus cases in the U.S., with at least 39 confirmed cases and 10 deaths, according to CNBC. A worker at one of Amazon’s Seattle offices has also tested positive with the coronavirus, however, Amazon did not close its offices, saying that the risk of transmission to other employees “is assessed to be low,” according to a company memo.
Digital Trends reached out to Facebook to comment on its decision to close its Seattle office, as well as how the closure would affect the company. We will update this story when we hear back.
In total, there have been more than 96,800 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, and 3,305 confirmed deaths. The virus is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, but there have been confirmed cases in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and more countries around the globe. It has caused massive travel discrepancies, tech company closures, significant event cancellations, and more.
The coronavirus outbreak has hit the tech industry especially hard. Major tech events like Google’s I/O Conference, Facebook’s F8 developer conference, and Mobile World Congress have all been canceled due to the coronavirus.
Outside of the U.S., about 50 percent of regional factories in China have shut down since the coronavirus outbreak began late last year, and many production facilities are behind on products. Apple stores have already reported a shortage of replacement parts due to the virus outbreak.
You can learn more about Facebook’s coronavirus safety precautions here.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?