Instacart Plans On Hiring 300,000 US Shoppers To Fulfill Orders As China’s Tencent To Track Students’ Health

Here are the latest updates on the impacts of the coronavirus from around the world.

Instacart will add 300,000 more full-service shoppers to support cities throughout the country, according to an announcement.

Instacart Founder & CEO Apoorva Mehta said in the announcement, “As more people look for immediate, flexible earnings opportunities during this time, we hope that Instacart can be an additional source of income for those looking to earn while also delivering for the communities in which they live.”

Mehta noted that all in-store shoppers throughout the country can now receive sick pay, which is an accrued benefit. The executive also noted that any in-store or full-service shopper can get a maximum of 14 days of extended pay “if [they’re] diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual mandatory isolation or quarantine,” per the announcement.

Mehta pointed out that Instacart has also launched a Leave at My Door Delivery function throughout the country, which makes it easier for shoppers to safely bring the orders to customers and for clients to safely receive them.

In other news, Tencent Holdings, the Chinese tech firm, has launched a health tracking app designed for students who are getting ready to go back to school, Reuters reported.

Fuxuema lets students give their daily temperatures and get a color-coded QR code that provides their health status.

Mainland China, for its part, registered a decrease in its daily accounting of new instances of the coronavirus on Monday (March 23). Schools in the country have been closed as of January’s conclusion. However, some provinces have begun to make dates to open again in March.

Tencent reportedly said in a post, “When schools reopen, no matter whether it’s primary schools, middle schools or universities, they can put up a school access barcode at the gate, and let parents and outsiders scan via WeChat to enter school without hassle … [and] further manage people who enter school.”

While a share of social media users lauded the new code, some users indicated that it would bring about an additional inconvenience.