PHD follows sister shop OMD in closing UK office over coronavirus scare

PHD's UK office is expected to be shut for the rest of the week following a coronavirus scare at sister office OMD, which is located next door.

Campaign understands that PHD staff told in an email Wednesday evening that the office would be closed and that they should not come in on Thursday and Friday.

This came hours after OMD decided to temporarily shut its London office after an apparent coronavirus precaution. An OMD employee is being tested for the virus after returning to the UK recently from Australia via Singapore and is displaying flu-like symptoms. 

OMD and PHD, part of Omnicom Media Group, are based in London's Fitzrovia and are due to move across the capital later this year to Omnicom's UK headquarters in Bankside.

Coronavirus was first reported to the World Health Organization on 31 December 2019 after a number of suspected pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in eastern China with a population of 11 million. 

Since then, the virus—now officially called COVID-19—has hit approximately 78,000 people in mainland China, killing 2,710. A further 3,700 cases and at least 51 deaths have been reported globally. As of February 25, Iran has reported the highest number of deaths outside China at 12.