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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider 400 staff to be laid off by Hong Kong Airlines amid nCoV spread

400 staff to be laid off by Hong Kong Airlines amid nCoV spread

Published Feb 7, 2020 12:00 am
By Merlina Hernando-Malipot As the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continues to spread in Hong Kong, hundreds of Hong Kong Airlines employees will be laid off while the others will be forced to take unpaid leave in the coming weeks. In a report by Agence France-Presse, Hong Kong Airlines announced that 400 of its employees will be laid off while the remaining employees will be asked to take a minimum of two weeks unpaid leave per month or work three days a week starting Feb. 17 until the end of June. In a statement, Hong Kong Airlines said the strict entry and quarantine measures imposed by countries due to the 2019-nCoV worldwide affect travel demand in the city. The recent move is the response of the airline to mitigate the challenges brought about by the new virus. Due to the impact of the health crisis, Cathay Pacific also announced earlier that it asked its 27,000 workforce to take three weeks leave without salary starting between March and June. The latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that there are 31,420 confirmed cases with 638 deaths due to the 2019-nCoV. China, where the deadly virus outbreak originated, has 31,211 confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV to date. Based on the tracking made by Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), of the 638 reported deaths due to the new coronavirus, 636 are recorded in China, one in Hong Kong, and one in the Philippines.
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