As the Omicron variant continues to spread across the United States, Apple is adjusting its protocols for employees.
The Verge reports Apple will require corporate and retail staff to offer proof of having received a COVID-19 booster shot if they want to enter offices or stores from Feb. 15 onward. Additionally, the company says that employees who are unvaccinated will be required to “provide negative COVID-19 rapid antigen tests before entering the workplace beginning on Jan. 24”
“Due to waning efficacy of the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines and the emergence of highly transmissible variants such as Omicron, a booster shot is now part of staying up to date with your COVID-19 vaccination to protect against severe disease,” the company states in an internal memo obtained by the Verge.
The news arrives just weeks after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that Omicron accounts for 73 percent of new cases across the U.S., making it the dominant variant in the U.S.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts have reiterated that a person’s best defense against the possibility of severe illness related to a COVID-19 infection is to be fully vaccinated and boosted. While the vaccine has never been promised to prevent someone from catching the virus, it can give them the peace of mind that they should be “relatively well protected.”
