Google is dropping international vaccination necessities for getting into buildings

An Android statue is displayed in front of a building on the Google campus on January 31, 2022 in Mountain View, California. Google’s parent company Alphabet will report fourth-quarter results after the market close on Tuesday.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Google It is no longer necessary for people to be vaccinated against Covid to enter their buildings.

In a company-wide email sent to employees Tuesday and seen by CNBC, Google VP of Global Security Chris Rackow said that “vaccinations are no longer required as a condition of access to any of our buildings.”

“Last month marks three years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic,” Rackow wrote in his memo. “We put in place emergency measures like our Covid-19 vaccination policy to keep everyone safe, but the world is in a very different place now. Most people today have some level of immunity to COVID-19, case numbers and hospitalizations have stabilized for many months, and governments around the world – including the US – are ending emergency declarations, lifting restrictions and ending vaccination mandates.”

In December 2021, Google told employees they had to comply with vaccination guidelines or risk losing their wages and eventual job, citing government contractor rules. Then in February, before employees were ordered to return to offices and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the legality of that rule, the company relaxed policies requiring vaccines for employment, as well as other rules about testing, social distancing and masks .

However, it was still required that employees be vaccinated to enter company premises.

Several hundred Google employees signed and distributed a manifesto against the company’s Covid vaccine mandate at the time, arguing that the leadership’s decision will have an outsized impact on American companies. It also found that outbreaks continued to occur at Google offices among vaccinated employees, while those who refused to provide their vaccination status continued to be barred from offices and other gatherings, including off-sites, summits and team events.

In his email, Rackow encouraged staff to keep up to date with their Covid vaccines going forward, “as we encourage everyone to get the flu shot every year,” adding that the vaccines are “crucial “ for the safety of Google employees in the region have been at work.

The mandate change comes after President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday to end the national emergency declared during the more than three-year-old Covid pandemic. In January, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Covid remains a global health emergency even though weekly Covid deaths have fallen by 70% since the peak of the first massive omicron wave in February 2022. the world’s most populous country faced its biggest wave of infections to date.

The mandate change also comes as Google has struggled to get employees back into physical offices and the company has begun downsizing its real estate as part of broader cost-cutting efforts. A CNBC report last month revealed that Google plans to ask cloud employees and partners to share desks in the division’s five largest locations, including New York and San Francisco.

Google declined to comment.

Read the full memo below:

“Last month marks three years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. We put in place emergency measures like our Covid-19 vaccination policy to keep everyone safe, but the world is in a very different place now. Most people today have some level of immunity to Covid-19, case numbers and hospitalizations have stabilized for many months, and governments around the world – including the US – are ending emergency declarations, lifting restrictions and ending vaccination mandates.

On this basis, we are now repealing our global vaccination policy. This means that vaccinations are no longer required as a condition of entry into any of our buildings. Those with existing properties will receive an email with further instructions.

Covid-19 vaccines have been an important part of our overall strategy to keep Google employees safe, particularly in the workplace. They also have the benefit of reducing the risk of serious illness if you catch it and have helped protect vulnerable members of our community. We encourage everyone to keep up to date with their Covid-19 vaccines going forward, just as we encourage everyone to get the flu shot every year.

We will continue to follow all local regulations and maintain our cleaning and ventilation standards in the office, and we ask that you do your part by taking care of your health and staying home if you feel ill.

We have been going through an extraordinary time that has challenged us to adapt and come together in ways we could not have imagined. I am proud and grateful for the resilience you have all shown as we navigated so much uncertainty – for our company and the world – over the past few years.

Thank you again for everything you are doing to protect your colleagues and communities.

Chris”