Google and Facebook will require staff to be vaccinated before they can return to office

Tech giants Google and Facebook have announced that staff must be vaccinated against COVID before they can return to the workplace, in light of the recent spread of the Delta variant. 

The policy will be implemented in the US in the coming weeks and is expected to eventually be rolled out in their global offices. It will apply to all employees eligible for the COVID-19 shot, with exceptions made for those exempt from receiving the vaccine. 

Google was the first of the tech companies to launch the policy, which will prohibit any non-vaccinated employees from accessing their 19 campuses across the US. CEO Sundar Pichai informed over 130,000 staff of the rule in a memo on Wednesday, writing, "Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated. We’re rolling this policy out in the U.S. in the coming weeks and will expand to other regions in the coming months." 

"Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead," he added. 

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Facebook quickly followed suit, announcing it too would be enforcing a vaccination policy on US staff. "As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated," VP of People Lori Goler said in a statement. "How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations."

Google will also extend its work from home policy until 18 October, pushing back on its previous goal of returning to the offices at half-capacity in early September. 

The news comes after Apple's announcement that it will require both vaccinated and non-vaccinated staff to wear a face-covering in its US retailers. The decision was made in response to recent recommendations from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that indoor masking should always be worn in places with high COVID-19 transmission rates.