Sony Interactive Entertainment have announced that an employee in their Tokyo offices has contracted the novel coronavirus.
They issued the following statement on the 12th of April.
“On Saturday, April 11, it was confirmed that one male employee working at our company (6-16-27 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo) was infected with the new coronavirus.
The employee had symptoms of sore throat / severe fever on Wednesday, April 1, and after continuing consultation with a medical institution at home, the symptoms did not improve, so on April 9 a PCR test was performed, and it turned out to be positive on Saturday the 11th. At this time, no new employees or suspected infections have occurred in our company, and we have not confirmed any concentrated contacts based on the criteria presented by the competent public health center.
In order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, we have taken various measures such as calling for hand-washing, gargling, prohibiting overseas travel, and recommending staggered commuting since the end of January, and have endeavored to ensure the safety and health of employees. As a part of this, after introducing telework, we have already banned entry to the office in principle, and the employee has not come to the office before the onset of illness. The floor, etc. where the employee is engaged has already been closed, and necessary measures such as disinfection of the office will be implemented in accordance with the guidelines of the public health center.
Going forward, we will continue to promptly determine and implement a response policy based on the government policy, placing the highest priority on preventing the spread of infection inside and outside the company and ensuring the safety and health of employees and partners.”
Translation: Google Translate.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the cancellation of E3 2020 (including digital events), and Comiket 98.
We also recently reported on an employee at Capcom’s Tokyo HQ contracted the virus, along with voice actor Rick May (Soldier in Team Fortress 2, Peppy Hare and Andross in Star Fox 64) passing away due to the virus. SiliconEra also reports a member of Capcom in Osaka also contracted the virus.
The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 1.934 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 1.352 million active cases. There have been over 120,000 deaths, however over 462,000 people have made a “total recovery.”
Japan has had a total of 7,645 cases (6,703 active cases), 143 deaths, and 799 recoveries.
Image: Wikipedia
