ToplineAmazon has delayed the date that company corporate employees can return to their offices to allow them to do so until at least next. This makes Amazon the latest major company in the world to postpone its back-to office plans due to rising coronavirus infection rates.People pass the glass spheres that are being built at Amazon's corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Getty ImagesThe Key FactsThe company announced that Amazon corporate staff won't return to the office until Jan. 3. This is four months after the initial goal of having staff back in September, and two months short of the two year anniversary of when many white-collar workers were sent home by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Seattle Times, the policy is applicable to its office staff in other countries and to its 60,000 employees within the Seattle area. This is not the first company to postpone its return to work date. Microsoft announced this week that it will delay opening its offices until Oct. 4, after stating in early September that it would reopen them. After initially telling employees that they would be returning to the office in September, Google announced last week that it will extend its voluntary work from home period to Oct. 18. Apple announced last month that it will not allow employees to return to the office until October. Uber delayed its return to the office from October to September last week, while Lyft employees won't be returning to work until February 2021.Important BackgroundThe U.S. now reports nearly 90,000 cases per day, based on a rolling seven-day average. This is more than 11 times the number of cases reported in June, when the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. was at its lowest level. The CDC believes the surge was caused by the delta variant of coronavirus, which is more contagious and is currently the most prevalent mutation in the country. Microsoft, Facebook, and Google announced that they will require all employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus before they resume in-person work.Continue readingMicrosoft is the latest major company to require workers to get vaccinated in the midst of the Covid Surge. (Forbes)U.S. Reports Almost 200,000 Covid Cases in Worst Spike since January (Forbes).Former FDA Head Claims That Delta will Infect "Majority" Of Unvaccinated Americans (Forbes).
