San Francisco, March 18: Facebook is giving $1,000 as bonus to each of its 45,000 employees to support them with liquid cash amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced in an internal memo that all employees will earn at least their full bonuses for their six-month review, reports The Information. GDC 2020: Facebook Announces To Reveal Latest Updates For Oculus Virtual Reality Games At The Event.

"I'm told Facebook has never done this, giving all employees at least their full normal bonuses, in its 16-year history," journalist Alex Health tweeted.

Some full-time Facebook employees have apparently taken over some of the work done by third-party contractors so that those contractors can stay home. Facebook has already asked its Seattle and Bay Area employees to work from home. The social networking giant also announced it is offering $100 million in cash grants and credits for up to 30,000 eligible small businesses in over 30 countries.

"Teams across our company are working every day to help businesses. We're looking at additional ways to host virtual training -- and will have more to share in the coming weeks -- and we're finding more ways to help people connect and learn to use technology through Blueprint, our free e-learning training programme," COO Sheryl Sandberg elaborated in a Facebook post.

The company said it's partnering with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Local Media Association to offer $1 million in grants for the US and Canadian newsrooms to properly cover the coronavirus pandemic. These individual grants will be for up to $5,000.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 18, 2020 04:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).