Despite the availability of vaccines and many vaccination incentives, the vaccination campaign in the USA is stagnating.
Employees of tech giants Google and Facebook now have to get vaccinated before returning to the office.
Washington - Employees at Internet giants Google and Facebook in the US must get the coronavirus vaccine before returning to their offices.
The companies communicated this independently of one another.
Google boss Sundar Pichai said the regulation would initially affect the United States, but would also apply to other regions in the coming months as soon as vaccinations are widely available there.
As a result of the recent increase in new corona infections in the USA due to the Delta variant, Google is also postponing the planned larger return to the offices until October 18, as Pichai explained.
Apple, on the other hand, had already postponed the return to the office last week by initially one month, now until October.
However, the company has not yet announced any compulsory vaccination.
On Facebook, personnel manager Lori Goler said that the implementation of mandatory vaccinations for employees in the US offices would depend on "local conditions and regulations".
There will also be a procedure for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons.
The procedure with a view to locations outside the US would be examined further, it said.
Further cancellation for general compulsory vaccination
The vaccination campaign in the USA is now on the point - and that despite an abundance of vaccines and many vaccination incentives. Therefore, the states of New York and California as well as several cities have already announced compulsory vaccination for employees. According to President Joe Biden, the federal government is also examining compulsory vaccinations for its two million employees. According to the regulation under consideration, those who do not want to be vaccinated will have to undergo regular corona tests. However, Biden has clearly rejected the idea of a nationwide vaccination requirement.
In the USA, only 49 percent of the population of around 330 million people have been fully vaccinated to date. Most recently, the number of daily new corona infections rose again to around 60,000 on average because of the particularly contagious Delta variant. dpa