Big tech starts requiring vaccines; Twitter closes re-opened US offices

Twitter Inc is shutting its reopened offices in United States, while other big tech companies are making vaccination mandatory for on-campus employees, as the highly infectious Delta COVID-19 variant drives a resurgence in cases. Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc said on Wednesday all US employees must get vaccinated to step into offices.

Google is also planning to expand its vaccination drive to other regions in the coming months. Twitter, which on Wednesday also paused future office reopenings, had started allowing employees back to its campuses in San Francisco and New York at 50 percent capacity about a fortnight ago after more than 16 months US coronavirus cases have been rising due to the Delta variant, which emerged in India but has quickly spread and now accounts for more than 80% of U.S. coronavirus cases.