New Delhi: After Meta, Apple has joined the list of companies that have made it mandatory to get COVID-19 booster shots for all employees who are returning to offices. Apple staffers who are unvaccinated would need to furnish a negative COVID-19 test before entering the workplace, the media has reported.
According to a report published in The Verge, an Apple employee who is eligible to get a booster shot, will have four weeks to comply, otherwise, they will need to take frequent tests to enter a retail store, partner store, or Apple office starting on February 15. The iPhone maker has also made it clear that its unvaccinated employees and those who are yet to submit proof of vaccination will have to submit negative coronavirus rapid antigen tests before entering the workplace starting January 24.
This development comes after Facebook's parent firm Meta made it compulsory to get COVID-19 booster shots for all workers returning to offices. The tech giant has also pushed back the reopenings of the US office to March 28 from an earlier plan of January 31. Also, Google temporarily mandated weekly COVID-19 tests for workforce entering its offices in the US.
Earlier in December, Apple informed its employees to work from home and delayed the return to office date indefinitely in the wake of rising coronavirus cases globally. According to a memo sent by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the employees were informed about the development that the iPhone maker was delaying its planned return to offices in February, says a report by news agency Bloomberg.
The development came weeks after the Cupertino, California-based tech giant asked its staffers to begin returning to offices by February. Apple employees would be given $1,000 so that they can outfit their homes for remote work. There are rising concerns about the rising COVID-19 cases as the heavily mutated omicron variant continues to spread globally.