Google will allow employees to work from home until JULY 2021 due to pandemic

GOOGLE is set to allow its employees to work from home until July 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Staff were initially sent home in March, and are now not expected to return in a large capacity until summer next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Getty – Contributor

Google employees will work from home until July 2021[/caption]

The company has around 200,000 employees – most of who will be affected.

Employees were previously only expected to work from home until the end of 2020 and were scheduled to return in January.

The search engine company allowed employees to spend up to $1,000 on work-from-home supplies back in May, the New York Post reported at the time.

AP:Associated Press

CEO Sundar Pichai was reportedly ‘swayed in part by sympathy for employees with families’[/caption]

On Tuesday, Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams said schools shouldn’t reopen until the transmission rate drops – after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from them if they remain closed.

Adams acknowledged that young students are a low risk for coronavirus, but said they could put teachers and adults in danger when the transmission rate is high.

“We know the risk is low to the actual students, but we know they can transmit to others,” Adams said.

“We need to take measures to make sure we protect those who are vulnerable either because they are older or they have chronic medical conditions.”

However, in a statement released by the CDC on Thursday, it said: “Parents are understandably concerned about the safety of their children at school in the wake of COVID-19.

“The best available evidence indicates if children become infected, they are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms.

“Death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults.

“At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant.

“Further, the lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children and those living with disabilities.”