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Some people call them “ghost offices”. These are buildings in suburbs and secure locations that are kept quietly on standby – for years on end. You might walk by one and never pay any attention to it. They have little or no signage. A high fence and some security cameras, perhaps.

But inside are rows and rows of desks just waiting to be used in the event of a disaster – a safe place to bolt to if the regular office is inaccessible or even destroyed.

Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. And yes, pandemics. These are just a few of the events that might cause a company to abruptly ditch their usual building and relocate staff to a backup office – also known as a “disaster recovery” or “business continuity” site.

And now, sadly, a crisis is really upon us. In response to the novel and fast-spreading coronavirus, companies including large banks have been rapidly activating such contingency plans.

‘Disaster recovery’ sites are alternatives to working from home, which isn’t possible for all employees
The idea is that, should the virus hit a company’s main office, staff at the backup facility will be able to keep doing their jobs. It’s an alternative to working from home, which isn’t possible for all employees, including those who deal with commercially sensitive information, for example.

Some companies keep name cards or lanyards on the silently waiting desks so that, when workers arrive, they immediately know where to sit. Computers, telephones and business software are all kept ready at some locations, too. The buildings themselves might be ring-fenced with tight security. Or be built to withstand hurricanes or earthquakes.

Not all businesses can afford to have these dedicated facilities at their disposal, but backup offices can prove crucial to the survival and safety of certain companies whenever crisis hits. Often, disruptive situations only last a few days or weeks. But with coronavirus potentially lasting well into 2021, firms may find themselves relying on backup offices much longer than ever before.

Built for disaster

“We’ve got customers in all regions utilising our facilities – that’s never really happened before. This is the first global event that we are managing,” says Patrick Morley, vice president of global product management at Sungard Availability Services, a company that provides backup offices and technology to firms.

Sungard has about 60 backup office locations across nine countries, including the UK, the US and India. Several of these buildings are in the UK, including a handful in London. Companies generally rent a certain number of desks at a disaster recovery site. They might share that space with other firms, but the highest-paying clients have access to dedicated spaces that are kept on standby solely for them.


By spreading workforces across a greater number of sites, businesses are clearly hoping that they can mitigate some of the risk presented by Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. But some observers say working from home is better than opening up more offices, since any shared workplace could become a hotbed for virus transmission. Morley says Sungard’s clients are indeed thinking about hygiene. “Customers have actually said, ‘Look, before we come in can you do a deep clean?’” he explains.

Sungard has put out lots of hand sanitiser in its buildings. And there are signs reminding employees to wash their hands. The firm also has cleaning staff on standby to perform deep cleans whenever needed, day or night.

Financial service agencies and banks are the most likely businesses to have backup offices like this on hand. But firms in the insurance, utilities, petrochemical or real estate trade are also known to have similar facilities. For security reasons, companies don’t usually disclose the locations or features of the disaster recovery sites to which they have access.

On the clock but off the grid

Although client names are confidential, basic details about some of Sungard’s facilities are public. The firm has a building in central London on Southwark Bridge Road, for example. It has desk space for nearly 1,700 people.

When any business wants to send staff to a backup office, it means asking a group of employees to travel to a different workplace. Staff might be asked to transfer operations immediately or they might be given a time and date at which the new working arrangements will begin.

All the equipment and software the employees need to do their jobs is ready and waiting
Some workers will have seen the premises beforehand during tests and drills. For others, it will be a completely unfamiliar place. But there are ways to make the transition “seamless” upon arrival, says Morley. For example, Sungard’s Southwark Bridge Road site, which is practically empty on most days, usually keeps two of its three entrances locked. But once a client that rents desk space in the building moves in, one of those entrances can be opened and used as the client’s new reception area. This means that employees can be greeted by the same receptionist who usually greets them at their regular office. One firm even keeps access card swipe machines on location so there is no change in how staff enter and exit the office.

“They literally have machines that they roll out into our reception, just to enable that to happen on a more familiar basis,” explains Morley.

Once inside, staff might find signs posted in the lift explaining what floor and area they should go to, depending on their role. All the equipment and software they need to do their jobs is ready and waiting.

Such backup offices are termed “hot sites” in the industry because they can be used immediately and don’t need to be kitted out or “warmed up” first. “Cold” sites, by contrast, could be as simple as an empty warehouse to which equipment can be shipped during a crisis.

Providing food is often a challenge because no one can predict when backup offices will be in use or to what extent. Morley says his team keeps lists of local food suppliers – cafes and restaurants – on hand for each location. Firms might, for example, pre-order entire buffets for lunch as Sungard’s buildings don’t have canteens.

Pandemics are a very specific kind of crisis, notes Chloe Demrovsky, president and chief executive of Disaster Recovery Institute International. The main threat that firms have been preparing for in recent years has been a major cyber-attack, she says: “Pandemic was kind of sitting on the back burner.”


Backup offices are crucial to the survival and sustainability of companies that deal with commercially sensitive data when big emergencies happen. (Credit: Sungard AS)

But she adds that the recent history of disaster preparedness in business was actually defined by a very specific event – 9/11. After terrorists struck the US in 2001, destroying the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, droves of businesses invested in backup locations.

“Presuming that a terrorist attack is the model, you would want to remove your people from a city centre, which is likely more at risk,” says Demrovsky.

‘They’re quite soulless places’

It’s partly a legacy of 9/11 that so many backup offices exist today. But why not just ask staff to work from home?

Demrovsky notes that some businesses handle highly sensitive information, so allowing employees to work via their personal devices or home internet connections would not be secure enough. Such firms might have regulatory requirements to handle data securely, which is why they take such things so seriously. Plus, there are sometimes practical problems.

“I’ve heard about some organisations that are struggling because they issue desktops, for example – people are having trouble taking those home,” she says.

Some firms also rely on ultra-fast computer hardware to process data from the financial markets with minimal delay. These are all reasons why a company might choose to have a disaster recovery office rather than an emergency work-from-home policy for staff.

Some backup offices are inside bunkers and bomb-proof buildings capable of withstanding natural disasters
David Teed is a business consultant who specialises in disaster preparedness. He says that backup offices, often being bland and furnished only with the essentials, may seem bleak to employees who find themselves suddenly posted there.

“They’re quite soulless places – they’re not places you want to be stuck for any length of time to be quite honest,” he says. “But they do a job.”

Some of the backup offices Teed has visited around the world are built to withstand all kinds of threats. “Some of them are in bunkers and bomb-proof buildings,” he says.

In US states like Oklahoma, for example, such buildings may be constructed to survive tornadoes or hurricanes. The roof of Corus360, a data centre in Norcross, in the US state of Georgia, is designed to survive wind speeds of 100 miles per hour or more. “It is a hardened facility,” says Steve Gruber, an executive at Res-Q, which runs Corus360 and provides backup office utilities and technology to clients, which they might call upon during an emergency or disaster.

The company’s Norcross building has 150 seats for workers. There’s an 18-inch raised internal floor with leak detection system, a backup generator and 48 hours of fuel. The walls are poured concrete and most of the structure is underground. There’s even a shower in case workers want to freshen up. According to Res-Q, the site is designed to function with a miniscule rate of failure and offers “a guaranteed uptime of 99.982%”.

A luxury in uncertain times

Due to the spread of Covid-19, Gruber says that staff at Res-Q facilities like the one in Georgia have had their work schedules staggered – which the company has never done before – so that operations can continue around the clock.

“We’ve had several customers already enquire as to availability,” he adds, referring to the pandemic situation. But one concern Gruber has is that some clients aren’t overly fastidious about testing their backup facilities ahead of time.


The tourism and entertainment industries have been hit hard by the restrictions in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. (Credit: Getty Images)

“We are a huge advocate of testing,” he says. “You don’t know if your solution or strategy is going to work unless you test.”

Cyber-security expert Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey agrees this is an important point: “It’s a bit like fire drills. You have to test it.”

Although some firms have spent huge sums of money to ensure they have backup offices ready and waiting, it’s important to realise that this is a luxury, says Daniel Aldrich, director of the security and resilience program at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

“A lot of the firms that we interview here in the Boston area simply don’t have that,” he says. And he notes that companies are already being hit by falling trade as people stay at home more and focus spending on things like groceries. If there are going to be large numbers of bankruptcies, he asks, can the government do anything to help?

For now, these backup offices may offer safe havens for employees who can’t work from home. Will everyone go back to the regular office when the coronavirus pandemic is over? Perhaps, but, perhaps not. We have yet to find out how this disease will affect society in the long-run – but changes to how we work could be surprisingly permanent

It's okay

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Splintinterior:
how about overcrowded buses transporting people to Ikorodu? More buses should be made available so that overcrowding can be avoided

I also asked the same thing for almost all bus routes esp those with long buses within the state

The UK Government will pay the wages of employees unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic, in a radical move aimed at protecting people's jobs.

It will pay 80% of salary for staff who are kept on by their employer, covering wages of up to £2,500 a month.

The "unprecedented" measures will stop workers being laid off due to the crisis, chancellor Rishi Sunak said.

Firms have warned the virus could see them collapse, wiping out thousands of jobs, as life in the UK is put on hold.

Mr Sunak said closing pubs and restaurants would have a "significant impact" on businesses.

It is understood that the wage subsidy will apply to firms where bosses have already had to lay off workers due to the coronavirus, as long as they are brought back into the workforce and instead granted a leave of absence.

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The chancellor said the move would mean workers should be able to keep their jobs, even if their employer could not afford to pay them.

He said they were "unprecedented measures for unprecedented times."

"I know that people are worried about losing their jobs, about not being able to pay the rent or mortgage, about not having enough set by for food and bills... to all those at home right now, anxious about the days ahead, I say this: you will not face this alone," Mr Sunak added

The wages cover, which relates to gross pay, will be backdated to the start of March and last for three months, but Mr Sunak said he would extend the scheme for longer "if necessary".

The scheme, which will be run by HMRC, is expected to make the first grants to businesses "within weeks", a Treasury spokeswoman said.

'Hugely welcome'
Employers' body the CBI said Mr Sunak's announcement was "a landmark package".

"It marks the start of the UK's economic fightback - an unparalleled joint effort by enterprise and government to help our country emerge from this crisis with the minimum possible damage," said director general Carolyn Fairbairn.

The Resolution Foundation think tank also said the package was "hugely welcome", reaching lower-paid workers that were most at risk of job losses.

But other lobby groups warned of the potential risk to firms which had to wait for the money to arrive.

Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said many businesses faced rent payments before the support was due.

"Banks and landlords need to do more to help us bridge the gap towards this generous government support. Damage is being done now, so we need help now."

The Federation of Small Businesses also warned the delay in wages help - potentially until the end of April - meant many small firms would still face "an immediate, potentially terminal cash flow crunch".

'Not alone'
The government has faced huge pressure to intervene to support workers to prevent mass unemployment as anti-virus measures have seen many firms' revenues evaporate almost overnight.

The wage package is the latest in a series of government moves aimed at easing the burden on businesses and their employees.

However, there was not the same wages guarantee for the self-employed. Instead, Mr Sunak increased benefits that many will have to fall back on.

Other measures to support firms and workers included:

VAT payments by companies deferred until the end of June
Interest free cash grants to small businesses
Self-assessment income tax payments for July 2020 deferred for six months
Increase in standard Universal Credit of £20 a week, with the same rise for those still on the working tax credit scheme
Nearly £1bn for those struggling to pay rent, through increases in housing benefit and Universal Credit
Capital Economics said that it expected the unemployment rate to rise from just under 4% to about 6% due to the crisis. However, without this latest government intervention, that rate would have risen to the financial crisis level of 8%, it said.

This move is an incredible intervention for any British government, let alone a Conservative one, but proportionate to the size of the terrible, but temporary, economic impact that could follow the coronavirus shutdowns.

In theory, it should save hundreds of thousands of jobs. Perhaps more. Employers have to accept that the government is doing something they would have never imagined a UK government to do.

At 80% cent of wages up to £2,500 a month it is a scheme more generous than some of the high welfare Scandinavian countries. It instantly transforms the social safety net of this nation.

It shows that the Treasury does believe that the very sharp plunge in the size of the economy can be followed by a bounceback - but not if millions of people are scarred by unemployment. Economics shows that these can have long lasting impact.

The chancellor was given the room for this partly by the Bank of England's biggest ever announcement of purchasing government debt.

There are risks if this pandemic lasts much longer than three months. But the risks of not acting were much greater.

Now it requires employers to hold their nerve until the payments begin at the end of next month. And for the banks to help that process.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p0876j1g/51982005

Hmmmm

COVID-19 Outbreak World Map.svg
Map of total confirmed cases as of 19 March 2020
From
10,000+ confirmed cases (DARK RED)
1,000–9,999 confirmed cases
100–999 confirmed cases
10–99 confirmed cases
1–9 confirmed cases
No confirmed cases (WHITE)

Shoppers should be sensible when buying food and groceries, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and supermarkets have said.

Shelves have been emptied around the UK during the coronavirus outbreak, but can panic-buying be controlled and what is being done to restock shops?

What are supermarkets doing?
The major supermarkets are imposing limits on how many of each item people can buy.

Tesco is limiting customers to three of any product, and only two of toilet roll and paracetamol
Sainsbury's says people can buy up to three of any grocery product and two of more popular items like toilet paper, soap and long-life milk
Asda will let people purchase up to three of any food, toiletry or cleaning product
Aldi is limiting customers to four of any product
Waitrose is allowing people to buy only three of any grocery product and two packets of toilet roll
On Thursday, Sainsbury's dedicated the first hour of opening in stores, apart from its Local shops, to elderly and vulnerable customers.

Iceland has also been opening an hour early for elderly and vulnerable people, and Tesco and Waitrose are introducing similar schemes.

Services like cafes and deli counters have been shut by Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose, to allow more staff to focus on tasks like restocking shelves.

Tesco has said it will introduce distancing measures at checkouts to reduce the risk of infection.

And it is also going to introduce a special hour in its large stores on a Sunday morning for its own staff and NHS workers to shop.

Aldi is installing clear screens at all its checkouts from next week to protect staff and customers and is shortening its opening hours to close at 20:00.

Meanwhile, several food retailers are "drastically cutting" the range of products they sell. They are also telling manufacturers to stop making some products to focus on those for which there is greatest demand.

For example, one retailer, which makes 60 kinds of sausages, will only make a fraction of those.

And Morrisons have reduced their bakery lines from 17 to seven.

Are online deliveries holding up?
Online deliveries are being used by more people, but there are questions over how robust the systems are.

Ocado has taken its website offline until the weekend and has also closed its app because of heavy traffic.

Some Tesco deliveries are not arriving in their scheduled time slot and others are not being delivered at all if the driver runs out of time to reach all the addresses on the list.

Most of the major supermarkets have all their delivery slots booked up for at least the next couple of weeks.

Morrisons said it would increase the number of delivery slots by recruiting 2,500 extra pickers and drivers.

Sainsbury's says it is going to prioritise delivery slots for elderly and vulnerable people, and said it could identify who was eligible through its customer data.

How many people are panic-buying?
Social media is full of reports of empty shop shelves, with similar scenes in countries such as Australia, the US, South Africa and Japan.

At the moment, we don't have any official data on the scale of stockpiling in the UK.

But the main items on supermarkets' restricted list include:

anti-bacterial products including hand sanitiser
toilet roll and tissues
long-life milk
pasta
tinned vegetables
rice
soap
cleaning products
pain relief
Image Copyright @Bezzyboo_2@BEZZYBOO_2
Report
What is the government saying?
The government has said there is no reason for anybody to stockpile.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said: "We are absolutely confident our supply chains are working, and will work, and we will get "farm to fork" food supplies.

"Therefore people should have no reason to stockpile or panic-buy."

Public Health England has said that people should plan ahead and think what they will need, if they have to self-isolate for at least seven days.

The advice is that they should ask friends or family to drop off anything they need, or order supplies online. Any deliveries should be left outside their homes.

However, the government's powers to deal with this situation are so far untested, according to Paul Dobson, from the University of East Anglia.

But he said he expected the government to speak to supermarkets to secure a series of voluntary agreements on issues around supply, and limiting panic buying.

Supermarket delivery hours were extended earlier in March to help shops remain stocked.

The Competition and Markets Authority watchdog has warned retailers not to "exploit" fears about coronavirus by dramatically increasing the price of protective goods like hand gels and face masks.

The government has announced the temporary relaxation of competition laws to help supermarkets pool staff and data. This means retailers will be able to discuss stock levels, co-operate to keep shops open and share distribution depots and delivery vans.

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Iyiataata92:
Can it detect coronavirus?

Good Question.

Letters are being sent to more than 65,000 retired doctors and nurses asking them to return to the NHS to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Senior officials say the ex-employees are needed to boost frontline services.

Meanwhile, the government has pledged to ensure that all hospitals have enough protective gear and ventilators.

It has also published a list of key workers in England whose children will still be able to go to school after they shut down across the UK later.

And the chancellor is set to announce a wage subsidy package to protect jobs.

Many firms are warning of collapse, wiping out thousands of jobs, as life in the UK is largely put on hold.

One proposal under discussion is for the UK to follow the lead of countries such as Denmark, where the government has promised to cover 75% of salaries at private companies for three months, if they promise not to let staff go.

In the UK, 144 people with the virus have died, and 3,269 people have tested positive for Covid-19.


Schools in the UK will close from Friday except for those looking after the children of key workers and vulnerable children.

Among those workers listed in government guidance as critical to the virus response are health workers, teaching staff, police and people working in the production and delivery of vital goods such as food and medical equipment.

Children with at least one parent working in the listed sectors can continue to attend school but the government is asking parents to keep their children at home wherever possible.

Who are "key workers"?
Those who work in one of these "critical sectors", and cannot keep their child at home, will be able to continue sending their child to school, the Cabinet Office has said. The full list includes staff working in:

Health and social care. Including: doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff, education and childcare. Including: some nursery and teaching staff, social workers and specialists

Key public services. Including: those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services; those responsible for the management of the deceased; journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting
Local and national government. Staff deemed essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits.


Food and other necessary goods. Including: workers involved in food production processing, distribution, sale and delivery. This also applies to those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

Public safety and national security. Including: police and support staff; Ministry of Defence staff, contractors and armed forces personnel; firefighters and support staff; National Crime Agency staff; border security, prison and probation staff; and other national security roles, including those overseas


Transport. Including: those who will keep the air, water, road and rail transport modes operating
Utilities, communication and financial services. Including: essential financial services staff; the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage); information technology and data infrastructure sector; key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, and waste disposal sectors
It comes as England's top nurse and top doctor urged medics who have left the NHS in the last three years to re-register with the regulatory bodies to help in the battle against the "greatest global health threat in history".

Final-year medical students and student nurses could also be given temporary work to boost the ranks.

Those who return will be assessed to see how they can best help the NHS fight the pandemic.

Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said: "I am urging all recent former nurses to lend us your expertise and experience during this pandemic, because I have no doubt that you can help to save lives."

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS, said returners "will make more of a difference than ever before - not just to patients, but to colleagues and the wider community".

The Nursing and Midwifery Council will write to 50,000 nurses whose registration has lapsed in the last three years; and the General Medical Council will contact another 15,500 doctors who have left since 2017.

It comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledged to rush protective personal equipment (PPE) to frontline NHS staff and social care providers, following concern workers were being put at risk by shortages.

Speaking on BBC One's Question Time, Mr Hancock said the UK had shipped 2.6 million masks and 10,000 bottles of hand sanitiser in the last 24 hours.

He promised that "overnight 150 hospitals will get the next pack of protective equipment they need… every single hospital will get their next batch of equipment before Sunday night".

He also confirmed social care providers would get a package of personal protective equipment by the end of next week.

When will the coronavirus outbreak end?
How long could schools be closed?
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Isle of Man confirms first coronavirus case
In response to a government appeal for more ventilator makers, 1,400 companies had offered to switch their operations to help manufacturer them, including Formula One, Mr Hancock said.

He added that officials would work with leading companies to radically increase the number of coronavirus tests, after the government pledged 25,000 tests per day within four weeks.

The government has bought a test that can detect whether someone has had coronavirus - and their immunity to it, he confirmed.

Mr Hancock also admitted he could not live on statutory sick pay of £94.25 per week, ahead of the chancellor's expected announcement of further measures to help workers and companies.

The health secretary's comments came during the first Question Time to be filmed without a studio audience as the BBC followed advice over social distancing.

In a message to the nation on Thursday, the Queen urged people to come together for the common good.

The 93-year-old praised the work of scientists, medics and emergency staff, but added that everyone has a "vitally important part to play".

The monarch's comments came shortly before the PM led the government's daily press conference, saying the UK can "turn the tide" on the coronavirus crisis within 12 weeks.

But pressed on what he meant by the three-month timescale, he said he did not know how long it would go on for.

Mr Johnson went on to rule out closing down public transport in London but pointed out people in some parts of the capital were not following government guidance on social distancing and would be "enforced" to do so if necessary.

In other key developments in the UK and abroad:

Italy's death toll rose by 427 to 3,405, overtaking China's toll
Trials of a coronavirus vaccine could begin within the next month, Public Health England has said
Military leaders have been told by the head of the armed forces to be ready by the middle of next month to help respond to the pandemic, in guidance seen by the BBC

Ministers are asking phone operators if they can use mobile data to help monitor whether people are following social distancing advice
Train operators across Britain will gradually reduce services from Monday
Jaguar Land Rover, is to join Nissan and Vauxhall in suspending production at its UK plants
The Bank of England has cut interest rates from 0.25% to 0.1% - the lowest level in its history.
The Catholic Church in Britain will suspend public masses from Friday evening until further notice

An estimated 400 British nationals are stranded in Peru, after the country closed its borders and flights were suspended

California, the most populous US state, has issued a "stay at home" order to residents
Confirmed cases worldwide have passed 220,000, with more than 9,000 deaths

New Directives
New Preventive Measures

Doctors around the world say: Stay at Home
Spread the word NOT the virus

New Directives
New Preventive Measures

Doctors around the world say: Stay at Home
Spread the word NOT the virus

Hear word, you won't hear

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