Facebook Delays Return To Office Until January 2022

(RTTNews) - Social media behemoth Facebook Inc. (FB) on Thursday announced it will push its date for U.S. employees to return to their offices until January 2022 as the Covid-19 delta variant ravages the country.

"Data, not dates, is what drives our approach for returning to the office," the company said in a statement. "Given the recent health data showing rising Covid cases based on the delta variant, our teams in the U.S. will not be required to go back to the office until January 2022. We expect this to be the case for some countries outside of the US, as well. We continue to monitor the situation and work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone's safety."

Facebook had previously planned to reopen most of its U.S. offices at 50% capacity by early September and to reopen in full in October. The company has a workforce of about 60,000.

Facebook becomes the latest tech giant to delay its return to office plans until next year. Previously, Amazon announced a similar plan for corporate employees, while Lyft also announced that its employees won't return to offices until February 2, 2022. Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Uber and Roblox have also delayed their return to the office.

The seven-day case average in the U.S. continues to rise, although the seven-day deaths average remains well below the all-time peak.