Biden campaign staff to work from home amid coronavirus outbreak

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign staffers will begin working from home on Friday amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to an internal campaign memo. 

The directive is for all staff working out of Biden headquarters in Philadelphia, as well as in field offices across the country, according to the memo from Biden’s new campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior adviser Anita Dunn. 

Staff working in states will be given the option to work from their homes, while the campaign will provide “work from home” remote office pods to staff without permanent residences. 

Additionally, the memo announced that Biden campaign headquarters and field offices will be closed to the public starting on March 14. 

“Our campaign will continue to organize voters across the country through phone banking, text messaging, virtual events, and other distributed organizing models,” Dunn and O’Malley Dillon wrote. 

The campaign’s newly formed Public Health Advisory Committee will help decide which events the campaign will host in the near future. 

Biden’s campaign revealed on Wednesday that his campaign will host “virtual events,” instead of in-person rallies and events. The events are scheduled for Friday with Illinois community members, and Sunday for Miami. 

The former vice president and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) canceled their primary night rallies in Cleveland due to concerns over the virus. 

Biden rolled out his plan to combat the virus on Thursday, instead of holding an event in Tampa, Fla. 

The plan calls for a number of measures, including the establishment of an effective national response to the virus through making testing free and widely available, as well as the establishment of 10 mobile sites and drive-thru facilities per state.