It’s been just revealed that Google backtracked on plans to welcome the most workers back to its sprawling campus back in September. This became the latest Silicon Valley firm that delays reopening amidst a surge in Covid cases.
The company revealed recently that it’s postponing the return to the office until mid-October. They are also rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone who returns in person to be vaccinated.
The Guardian notes that the decision sees Google join Apple and Netflix in postponing calling employees back to the office due to concerns about the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Just in case you don’t know, this now accounts for more than 80% of new cases in the US.
Twitter also halted reopening plans and closed offices last week due to the Delta variant, according to the same article.
“In an email to Google’s more than 130,000 employees worldwide, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning 18 October instead of its previous target date of 1 September,” The Guardian notes.
“This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote.
This is the third time Google has pushed back the date for fully reopening its offices.
The Delta covid variant
This highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus which is causing the disease Covid 19 is now lingering in 124 countries, and it will soon become the dominant strain globally in the upcoming months.
It’s been revealed that there’s an internal slide presentation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dated Thursday, which is offering new details on how dangerous the delta variant really is.
“One chart shows that it could be as contagious as chicken pox — which is one of the more transmissible viruses out there. It spreads more easily than the common cold, the 1918 flu and small pox,” NPR.org notes.
