Apple pushed back its return-to-office plans by a month in response to the recent surge in coronavirus cases, which has been fueled by the spread of the Delta variant.
The company told employees on Monday that they are now expected to return to the office on Oct. 1 instead of early September. The company said the date could shift further depending on the spread of the virus, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Some employees, such as those who build hardware, have already returned to Apple’s offices. At the beginning of the pandemic, Apple closed many of its retail stores, but those have since reopened.
Apple declined to comment further. The company had 147,000 full-time employees as of September. Bloomberg earlier reported the changed return-to-office date.
Like many companies, Apple has delayed its employees’ return date several times, but it is one of the first major corporations to respond to the Delta variant spread.
Throughout the pandemic, Silicon Valley has been at the forefront of the trend toward remote work, with tech companies like Twitter and Facebook among the first to order their employees to work from home in early 2020. Many tech companies also eventually decided to make remote work permanent.
