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Facebook campus in Menlo Park near San Francisco Bay
Photo: Steve Proehl / Getty Images
Because of the rapid spread of the Delta variant in the USA, Google and Facebook are tightening the corona rules for their employees.
The employees of the two Internet giants in the USA have to be vaccinated against the corona virus before returning to the offices, both companies announced on Wednesday (local time) independently of each other.
Google boss Sundar Pichai (49) said the regulation would initially affect the USA, but would also apply to other regions in the coming months as soon as vaccinations are widely available there. The advance of the two tech giants is putting pressure on other big companies to follow suit.
"Getting vaccinated is one of the most important things we can do to keep us and our communities healthy in the coming months," Pichai said.
Google is also postponing the planned major return to the offices until October 18.
He hoped that the now dominant delta variant of the virus could reassure employees with these steps, he wrote.
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.
Google postpones return to the office, Apple waives compulsory vaccinations
On Facebook, HR manager Lori Goler announced that the implementation of mandatory vaccinations for employees in the US offices would depend on "local conditions and regulations".
"We will also have a procedure for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons," she added.
The procedure with a view to locations outside the USA will be examined further.
The safety and health of employees have priority in the return concepts.
The vaccination campaign in the USA is now on the point - and that despite an abundance of vaccines and many vaccination incentives.
For this reason, the states of New York and California have already announced an obligation for employees to either be vaccinated or to be tested regularly.
Vaccination required for employees in the states of New York and California
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 clearly rejected the idea of a nationwide vaccination requirement.
In the USA, a good 49 percent of the population of around 330 million people have been fully vaccinated to date.
That is significantly less than the government had targeted for this point in time.
Most recently, the number of daily new corona infections rose again to around 60,000 on average because of the particularly contagious Delta variant.
The previous highs were recorded on January 2 with 300,462 new infections and on January 12 with 4460 deaths.
rei / dpa-afx
