Apple is beginning to change its mask requirements for employees, according to Bloomberg. Vaccinated corporate staffers will not have to wear a mask at offices where “local indoor-mask mandates have been eliminated,” while masks will be optional for retail workers at “a small number of locations” beginning Friday, the publication says.
Just last week, Apple began to drop mask requirements for Apple store customers in several states. At the time, employees were still required to wear masks, but it appears Apple is beginning to relax those rules for some. Apple had previously dropped mask requirements for some stores and offices in June, but brought them back in July.
Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge.
It’s still unclear when Apple plans to fully reopen its corporate offices. The company indefinitely delayed a planned February 1st reopening in December, with CEO Tim Cook telling staffers in a memo that the return to work date was “yet to be determined.” When that February 1st date was announced, Cook outlined a hybrid work pilot where most workers would at first work one or two days in the office, and later be asked to work in the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
Google’s Bay Area employees will return to its Bay Area offices in April, also working in a hybrid model. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has informed staffers its offices will fully reopen on March 15th, and Meta plans to do the same on March 28th. Microsoft fully reopened its headquarters on Monday.
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