The resurgence in cases of Covid-19 has forced organizations to take necessary action to keep their employees safe from highly infectious Delta variants.
On Wednesday (Jul 28), Google and Facebook said that all of their employees in the U.S. must get vaccinated to step into offices. Google is also planning to expand its vaccination drive to other regions in the coming months. In the meanwhile, Google said that it would extend its work-from-home policy through Oct. 18, Reuters reports.
Twitter, which on Wednesday also paused future office reopenings, had started allowing employees back to its campuses in San Francisco and New York at 50% capacity about a fortnight ago after more than 16 months.
U.S. coronavirus cases have been rising, with more than 80% of U.S. coronavirus cases are from Delta variants. Health authorities said Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 should go back to wearing masks in indoor public places in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
At the same time, San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Lyft Inc, which had already made vaccinations mandatory for employees returning to the office, postponed its reopening to February from September.
Streaming giant Netflix Inc has also implemented a policy mandating vaccinations for the cast and crew on all its U.S productions. Bloomberg News also reported that Apple Inc plans to restore its mask requirement policy at most of its U.S. retail stores, both for customers and staff, even if they are vaccinated.
Many tech companies including Microsoft Corp and Uber have said they expect employees to return to offices, months after pandemic-induced lockdowns forced them to shift to working from home.
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