I am a software developer at a small company located in NY (about an hour outside of NYC). I do not need to be in the office for my job, most of my communications with people is over Teams (messaging app) and the actual job duties are easily done from home.
My boss lets us work from home on occasion, if we are sick or for other reasons, but is not a fan of it. Friends of mine that work at other companies are required to work from home now due to the covid outbreak. I would like to work from home because I am concerned about people spreading the virus. My boss sent out an office-wide email about covid a few days ago saying if you are sick don't come in to work... (But by the time you feel sick from covid weeks may have passed where you are transmitting it to everyone in the office.)
Would it be reasonable to ask my boss if I can work from home until things calm down? Last time I asked my boss if I could work from home for a week to visit family they said I was 'asking a lot of them'. I don't want to get on their bad side but I feel like this is putting me and others at risk unnecessarily.