Washington, March 10 (AFP/APP): All International Monetary Fund employees will work from home on Friday, the fund said Monday, to test systems in case the spreading coronavirus epidemic makes working remotely a necessity. The World Bank, too, has been testing remote work procedures on a smaller scale, a spokesman told AFP. Last week, the IMF and World Bank announced that their Spring meetings in April would become a virtual event amid the spread of COVID-19 which has sickened 110,564 people in 100 countries and killed 3,862. As more governments and companies are encouraging work from home to contain the virus, the IMF said in a statement it would for the first time conduct a “fund-wide remote work exercise,” as part of its “crisis preparedness efforts and in preparation for the virtual spring meetings in April.” “This exercise will allow us to further strengthen the fund’s readiness to continue its operations and serve its membership during these trying times,” a spokesperson said. The World Bank is meanwhile testing remote work “department by department,” and already has a “number of systems in place” to ensure staff can work remotely, a spokesman said, speaking from his home kitchen. The development lending institutions hold … Continue reading IMF to test working from home in case virus strikes