The World Health Organisation on Thursday declared the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus as a global emergency after more than 200 people died from the pneumonia-like illness.

Cities in China have been cordoned off, airlines have cancelled flights to and out of the country, and airports globally have started implementing thermal scanners to catch any infections early.

Till date, around 9,800 cases of a coronavirus infection have been reported, surpassing the SARS epidemic in early 2000s. The new virus - named 2019-nCoV - appears to have a mortality rate of 2.2 per cent, as per a Bloomberg report, and from statistics based on national data from Jan. 20 onwards. However, the report added that it’s still too early to tell how deadly the outbreak will be, and notes that more people have died from it since Jan 20, than have left the hospital.

With coronavirus still continuing to spread across the world, we’ve put together a handy guide on best practices companies and human resources departments should follow to help their employees stay healthy and infection-free.

Effective Communication is Key

HR departments should pull together information pertaining to the coronavirus to create a ready-to-refer instructional guide for employees that not only educates them about the viral infection, but also enlists ways to avoid it.

The communication strategy should be multi-pronged and use all channels of communication available.

“You are looking at bulletins, sticking posters on the wall, emails, chat groups, town hall, infographics, videos, and any mode of media that could help to effectively communicate the message to all employees,” says Adrian Tan, a veteran HR practitioner and APAC leader of PeopleStrong, an India-based Enterprise HR SaaS platform.

Information gathered should only be from credible and verified sources, such as the page, the CDC website, and reputable news outlets that clearly attribute their information to either statements made by governmental agencies, or health professionals engaged in researching the virus.

Check out this Bloomberg story that busts some myths and highlights false information about coronavirus making the rounds online.