Apple ends corporate COVID mask mandate
- Reference: 1659460614
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/02/apple_covid_mask_mandate/
- Source link:
Apple's COVID response team wrote in an email to employees saying they should stay abreast of specific site requirements from Apple and local authorities, but otherwise won't be required to mask up at work.
"We recognize that everyone's personal circumstances are different. Don't hesitate to continue wearing a face mask if you feel more comfortable doing so. Also, please respect every individual's decision to wear a mask or not," [1]the memo said .
[2]
Apple's decision to drop its mask mandate for corporate employees comes at an odd time, as coronavirus cases have [3]been spiking in much of the US thanks to the highly-contagious, but milder in effect, BA.5 variant.
[4]
Californians are already [5]seeing relief from this latest wave, as numbers in the state [6]have leveled out , data from NBC News shows. Bay Area authorities have still decided to [7]reinstate mask mandates on public transport, beginning last week and running through the beginning of October.
[8]Apple scraps 3-day return to office amid COVID-19 cases
[9]Back-to-office mandates won't work, says Salesforce's Benioff
[10]Chromebooks are here to stay thanks to COVID, even though shipments crashed: IDC
[11]Chinese chipmaker workers told to sleep at their factories
Despite public transport fears, the Bay Area is actually faring better than other regions of California, having recently [12]dropped below the state's average for COVID infection rates after spending four months on top of charts. From late February to early July, the Mercury News reported, Bay Area infection rates were up to 50 percent higher than the rest of the state, placing the region among the most infected in the US.
Apple hasn't been immune to COVID fears either, [13]pausing its three days a week return plan in mid-May with no plans to bring it back. Apple employees didn't take well to news that they were being told to return to the office, writing an [14]open letter to leadership urging them to adopt more employee-friendly remote work policies.
As of early last month it appears Apple's return-to-office plans are [15]still on hold , but the few people working in the $5 billion Apple Park can do so a bit more comfortably until everyone else shows up. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/1/23288197/apple-mask-mandate-covid-19-protocols-hq-apple-store
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yumel7THWtirb@Gv3EH5tAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/well/live/covid-ba5-precautions.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yumel7THWtirb@Gv3EH5tAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/COVID-in-California-White-House-summit-aims-for-17328446.php
[6] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tracking-coronavirus-case-surges-states-across-country-winter-n1247103
[7] https://abc7news.com/bart-face-masks-mask-mandate-covid-board-vote/12078739/#:~:text=Face%20masks%20are%20once%20again,both%20your%20nose%20and%20mouth.
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/apple_return_to_office/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/back_to_office_benioff/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/idc_chromebook_tablet_trackers/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/25/smic_shenzhen_closed_loop_order/
[12] https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/22/bay-area-covid-case-rates-are-once-again-lower-than-californias-after-months-of-leading-the-state-for-new-cases/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/apple_return_to_office/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/03/apple_return_to_the_office/
[15] https://9to5mac.com/2022/07/03/apple-remote-work-policy/#:~:text=Apple%20employees%20started%20returning%20to,person%20work%20on%20May%204.
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The panemic is over?
"Are those 450 Americans still dying every day from covid along with the never ending mutation of the virus just my imagination?"
450 deaths per day of people dying with COVID not from COVID. The distinction matters and anyone suggesting otherwise is being disingenuous.
Re: The panemic is over?
That's a stupid argument. Then there are no deaths from heart disease just WITH heart disease, no deaths from a car crash just deaths from shock and loss of blood pressure etc.
Almost all of these people are people who would not have died when they did if not contract covid. The older ones might have died from something else a year or two later, sure, but you deniers ignore all the younger people who are still dying from it just in fewer numbers than they did before there was a vaccine (and before the stupid antivax anti mask people already caught it once or twice...I have an unvaxxed friend who has caught it FOUR times)
"until everyone else shows up"
And why should they ?
They've been working from home for two years and things have apparently gone swimmingly.
In 2021, Apple made [1]$365.817 billion . Why do the peons need to go back ?
It's the Foxconn workers who can slave away. Cupertino can stay empty, it has zero impact.
[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/revenue
Re: Now will you all please return to our $5b headquarters?
I'm sure I remember seeing a TV program about their tax bills and that they've got their head quarters down as only being worth about $100M which means they have to pay so much less in the way of tax.
Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...
Can't they just tweak one of the corporate phone apps to listen-out for the sound of a coffee shop and the words "Large skinny soya decaf..." and respond with an announcement played out loud two minutes later, just as they've settled down at a table, saying: "Well, I see you can find the time to go out and visit a coffee shop, but you can't even pop into the office once in a while."
The panemic is over?
When did the pandemic end? Are those 450 Americans still dying every day from covid along with the never ending mutation of the virus just my imagination?
I have no doubt some well informed PhD epidemiologists and doctors will chime in and let me know I'm just imagining things.
Oh wait... no they won't. Just the Dunning Krugers will.