Facebook announced it was closing its London office and part of its Singapore base due to “deep cleaning” after an employee in the Asian city-state caught the novel coronavirus.

A member of staff working at the Marina One office of the US technology giant in Singapore was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday, a spokesperson told AFP.

“We have immediately closed the affected areas for deep cleaning and advised employees based in the affected area to work from home until 13 March,” he said in an emailed statement.

The infected employee even visited London offices in Facebook between 24 and 26 February.

“We are therefore closing our London offices until Monday for deep cleaning and employees are working from home until then,” the spokesman said.

The organization said it was getting in touch with people who had direct contact with the infected person and had advised them to separate themselves and watch for any possible symptoms.

Facebook has already shut down its office in Shanghai until further notice, although workers in Italy and South Korea were urged to work from home.

Additionally, workers in the San Francisco Bay area were “strongly advised” to work from home starting Friday.

An AFP list said that, Coronavirus has infected more than 100,000 people worldwide across 91 countries while more than 3,400 people have died.

A total of 163 people in Britain are currently tested positive for the virus and two people have died, health authorities said Friday.