Oil major and tanker chartering giant Chevron has locked down its UK headquarters in London after a worker developed flu-like symptoms.
The unnamed employee has now been tested for the Covid-19 coronavirus but no results have been issued.
The US company asked about 300 staff to stay at home instead of head in to the Canary Wharf office on Wednesday.
It is not clear if the employee had returned from China or other Asian countries hit by Covid-19.
Chevron has not yet said if workers will return on Thursday.
The Westferry Circus office is home to commodity traders, shipping experts and lawyers.
It looks likely to be the first of many such scares in the UK capital as the disease spreads remorselessly across the globe.
The company told TradeWinds that it continues to monitor the situation "very closely" and is following guidance of health authorities.
"Our primary concern is the health and safety of our employees and we are taking precautionary measures to reduce their risk of exposure," Chevron added.
"Consequently we have requested that our colleagues, based at our Westferry Circus office in London, work from home for the time being. It is our policy to not provide details of our employees."
Contagion spreading
So far, the UK has only reported 13 cases and no deaths.
Italy has been more heavily hit and the virus is spreading throughout the continent.
The outbreak in the north of the country saw Italian contractor Saipem request more than 2,000 employees to work from home, while it has also announced that it will cancel or reduce to a minimum some of its work in Italy, TradeWinds' sister newspaper Upstream reported.
Shipping stocks have declined sharply in the US and Europe this week, following on from sell-offs in Asia.
In Oslo, 2020 Bulkers was trading down 5% and Golden Ocean was nearly 5% off on Wednesday, while in Greece, which announced its first Covid-19 case on Wednesday, ferry operator Anek Lines was down nearly 9%.
In the US, Seanergy closed 9% lower and Top Ships was 11.6% down, while Globus Maritime lost 7.4% of its value.
Cleaves upgrades duo
Cleaves Securities head of research Joakim Hannisdahl said in a note on Wednesday that "in light of the recent rout in shipping equities amidst concerns over the spread of the coronavirus," he was upgrading recommendations on some of the companies covered.
"As we have feared for some time, a second wave of spread originating outside of China has seemingly commenced," he added.
"This leaves the short-term outlook highly uncertain. Although we do share the market’s concern on the outbreak and implications for the economy, we do maintain our base case that the impact will be felt mainly during 1H 2020 with a potential demand resurgence in 2H 20202".
He said: "In addition to a restocking effect in 2H 2020, we also expect a positive impact from Chinese stimuli in addition to the usual seasonality in dry bulk, oil tanker and LNG shipping."
Oslo-listed 2020 Bulkers has been upgraded to buy from hold and US-listed Diana Shipping is also now a buy, rather than a hold previously.
