Facebook pushes back-in-office date to January

Facebook joined several major companies Thursday in pushing back its full return to office date amid a surge of coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant.

“Data, not dates, is what drives our approach for returning to the office,” spokesperson Tracy Clayton told The Hill in a statement. 

“Given the recent health data showing rising Covid cases based on the Delta variant, our teams in the US will not be required to go back to the office until January 2022,” he added. “We expect this to be the case for some countries outside of the US, as well.”

The Silicon Valley giant started opening up its American offices earlier this year and was planning to ratchet up to 50 percent capacity next month with plans to fully reopen in November.

The company last month began requiring vaccinations for employees interested in returning to the office.

Masks are currently required in all Facebook offices.

All of Facebook’s tens of thousands of American employees are eligible to apply to work remotely permanently. 

Several major tech companies, including Amazon and Lyft, have pushed back their reopening dates.