Dear friend,
You have not given sufficient information about your company. Does it fall under "essential services"? Has your company obtained permission from the police authorities to continue the operations?
How employees of your company are working? What is the nature of their work? Does the work differentiate between the office and home or there is no difference at all?
There are a few companies that do not work from home. However, considering their operations in the urban area and most of them have laptops at their home, just to keep them engaged, some activities are going on. Is something similar going on in your company?
Unless you provide the complete information, we the members of this forum, who are outsiders cannot give our comments.
Nevertheless, if you make the employee join on 1st April, you will have to pay the salary. In contrast, if you could wait till 15th April, then you can save the salary for the half-month. Now what to do that you know best!
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar