Amazon updated its safety policies to require all warehouse workers to wear face masks regardless of vaccination status, Bloomberg reported, because of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
The company said in a notice to warehouse workers that it hopes the new policy “will only be required for a few weeks,” according to the report. But it recently delayed the return of its office employees from September 7 to January 2022 over the same concerns about the Delta variant.
Amazon told The Verge it “will continue to follow local government guidance and work closely with leading medical healthcare professionals, gathering their advice and recommendations as we go forward to ensure our buildings are optimized for the safety of our teams.”
The company started testing its warehouse workers for COVID-19 every two weeks in June 2020. Those efforts reportedly stopped on July 30, however, and it’s not clear if an increase in cases involving numerous variants of COVID-19 will prompt it to resume on-site testing.
This delay is part of the tech industry’s broader response to these COVID-19 variants. Companies have re-enacted face mask mandates, delayed the re-opening of their offices, and introduced new vaccination requirements for those who are going to work in-person.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more contagious and can lead to more serious illness in unvaccinated individuals than the initial strain. It also said the Delta variant was the “predominant strain of the virus” in the U.S. as of August 6.
