Apple doesn’t want its employees to return to the office by February 1. Amid rising concern about the new Covid-19 variant, Apple has decided to push back its corporate return-to-office deadline. Earlier, Apple had asked its employees to return to the office by February 1 but now the Cupertino-giant doesn’t seem to keen to call back its employees to the office so soon. Apple is yet to announce a new return-to-office date for its employees.

As per Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook informed employees about a new return to office plans via an email. “We are delaying the start of our hybrid work pilot to a date yet to be determined. “Our offices remain open and many of our colleagues are coming in regularly, including our teams in Greater China and elsewhere,” Cook said in the memo obtained by Bloomberg.

Cook cited “rising cases in many parts of the world and the emergence of a new strain of the virus” as the reason behind the delay. The Apple CEO encouraged all its employees to get vaccinations and booster shots. He said that it is by far the best way to keep you and your community safe.”

The announcement comes a week after Apple asked its employees to return to office by February 1. Apart from Apple, other big tech companies like Google, Microsoft also pushed back their deadline to return to office.

Google reportedly will take strict actions against employees who are not vaccinated.The company has reportedly issued a memo to the employees to warn them of the consequences if they do not get the vaccination doses. In the memo obtained by CNBC, Google gave a deadline till December 3 to its employees to submit the vaccination details. Employees were also given the option to apply for a medical or religious exemption by December 3. The memo said that after the deadline, the employees who had failed to submit any documents regarding their vaccination status will be personally contacted by the company. The employees whose exemption requests were not approved by the company will also be pulled up.

Googl said that if the employees fail to comply with the vaccination rules by Jan 18 will be placed on “paid administrative leave” for 30 days. Post which, they will be put on “unpaid personal leave” for six months. If they don’t get vaccination even then, they will be asked to leave the company.

The company spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson told The Verge, “As we’ve stated before, our vaccination requirements are one of the most important ways we can keep our workforce safe and keep our services running. We’re committed to doing everything possible to help our employees who can get vaccinated do so, and firmly stand behind our vaccination policy.”