Apple is preparing for employees’ return to offices and under the new COVID-19 protocol, unvaccinated corporate employees will be tested every day or every time they enter an office. This rule will apply to employees who do not wish to report their vaccination status.
On the other hand, vaccinated staff will be required to take rapid tests once per week. Apple’s testing requirement for retail employees is a little different, the unvaccinated staff will be tested twice per week and vaccinated staff will take a rapid test once per week.
Apple had scheduled corporate employees’ return to office in September this year, but the spike in the COVID-19 Delta variant pushed it till January 2022. Although the world is resuming its pre-COVID social and economic activities because of the nationwide vaccination drives, the threat is far from over. The fatal virus still prevails, therefore, Apple is ensuring all employees are safe via extensive testing without imposing a vaccine mandate for now.
As a federal contractor, Apple might put a vaccine mandate for all employees
Bloomberg reports that Apple is a federal contractor, it feels products to the U.S government via a dedicated sales channel. Therefore, to meet the Biden administration’s December 8, 2021 deadline for federal contractors to get all of their employees fully vaccinated, the tech giant might make vaccination mandatory for all employees.
The U.S. also has been pushing businesses with 100 or more employees to require vaccines or test unvaccinated staff at least once per week. The White House is set to issue additional guidelines in the near future.
Apple employees are required to report their vaccination status by October 24, 2021, and vaccinated employees will also have to share their vaccination cards. In internal emails, the employees are told that they can get 15-minutes at-home rapid tests from offices and stores and self-report the results via an internal app. The new requirement will into effect on Nov.1, 2021.
