Twitter Inc. escalated its coronavirus response by mandating that all employees must work from home, having previously only recommended the practice.

"We are moving beyond our earlier guidance of “strongly encouraging work from home” provided on March 2 and have now informed all employees globally they must work from home.

We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times," Twitter said.

The company has more than 35 offices around the world, with its Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea locations already put on mandatory remote work due in part to government restrictions. As it expands the policy to its global workforce, Twitter said it will continue to pay contractors and hourly-wage workers to cover standard working hours during the disruption. Twitter will also offer all employees, including hourly workers, receive reimbursement toward their home office set up expenses.

Microsoft Corp. and others have committed to pay hourly workers unable to do their on-site jobs and are also urging those who can to switch to working remotely.

Large events across the U.S. are getting canceled, including the South by Southwest festival this month, the Google I/O developer conference in May and the E3 gaming expo scheduled for June.