Apple is asking its US employees to report their vaccination status as COVID-19 cases spike in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing an internal memo.The iPhone maker has asked its staff to report their status “voluntarily” by mid-September, regardless of whether they are working remotely or from an office, according to the report.New guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that requires fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks have prompted companies to change their policies on vaccinations and masking.Big tech firms are also delaying their return-to-office timelines as the highly contagious Delta variant drives a resurgence in new COVID-19 infections.Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.Google recently extended its voluntary return-to-office policy through January next year, CEO Sundar Pichai said, citing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in many parts of the world.The rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant is also making companies reconsider their mask mandates and vaccination policies.”Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions,” Pichai said in an email to employees.In the last few weeks, companies including Amazon and Lyft delayed their return-to-office timelines to 2022 for US workers due to the pandemic.Google had earlier delayed its return-to-office policy from September to October. It was one of the first companies to ask its employees to work from home due to the health crisis.© Thomson Reuters 2021
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