An employee of the Internet company Facebook walks through the courtyard of the company campus in Menlo Park, California.
Christoph Dernbach | picture alliance | Getty Images
Facebook will require U.S. workers returning to its offices to be vaccinated, the company said on Wednesday.
“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.”
Facebook will create processes for those who can’t be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, Goler said. The company will continue to evaluate its approach outside the U.S., Goler added.
Facebook had already told full-time employees that most of them could continue working from home beyond the pandemic if their jobs could be done remotely.
The news comes after Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees earlier the same day that Google would delay its return to office plans by one month, citing the fast-spreading delta variant. Pichai also said returning workers would have to be vaccinated.
Apple earlier delayed its return to office plans, though it has not come out publicly with a vaccine requirement for workers. The company will require customers and staff to wear masks in many of its U.S. retail stores regardless of vaccination status beginning on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC’s Josh Lipton.
Though employer-mandated vaccine requirements seemed rare just a few weeks ago, the rise of the delta variant and new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seem to have played a role in shifting some executives’ thinking.
On Tuesday, the CDC walked back its earlier mask guidance for fully vaccinated people, saying that they should again wear masks indoors in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the change was due to new information on the delta variant, showing that some vaccinated people infected by the strain could continue to spread it to others.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
