Google introduces weekly Covid-19 testing policy for employees at workplaces

• Google said anyone coming in contact with a Google office or facility will require a negative molecular test

• Employees should report their vaccination status and wear surgical-grade masks at office

Google (NYSE: GOOG) announced a new weekly Covid-19 testing policy in U.S. for its workplaces amid exponential rise in infections due to Omicron spread.

Google’s health chief Karen DeSalvo said in an email to its full-time employees that anyone coming in contact with a Google office or facility will require a negative molecular test.

The memo also said that the employees should report their vaccination status and wear surgical-grade masks at office.

“The Omicron variant has become the dominant strain in then U.S. and is highly transmissible,” DeSalvo wrote. 

“There has been a significant rise in infection across the country, and hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients — reducing their capacity to provide care to others who need it.”

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Google has been quite strict lately with Covid-19 safety measures among workers. The company said last month that employees must comply with vaccine policies or be ready to lose their jobs.

This is in contract with what some executives said a few months earlier that the company would not mandate vaccines. Many Google employees opposed the company’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

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Google has been preparing for Covid-19 testing for a long time now. Google started providing at-home Covid-19 tests to employees in April from Cue Health.

“We expect this to continue over the next few weeks,” DeSalvo wrote, adding that the new testing rule is temporary. “During this period of heightened risk, we are making it a matter of policy to get a weekly molecular test (e.g. PCR, Cue) if you are coming into the office.”

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