Goldman Sachs will require US staff to take weekly COVID-19 tests even if they are fully vaccinated, a report says
- Goldman Sachs will ask its fully vaccinated staff to take weekly COVID-19 tests, the NYT reported.
- The bank will require staff returning to US offices to be fully vaccinated by September 7, per the report.
Goldman Sachs will require staff in its US offices to take weekly COVID-19 tests even if they are fully vaccinated, the New York Times reported.
The banking giant told staff in a memo Tuesday that employees who were not fully vaccinated by September 7 must work from home, per The Times.
The memo said that employees should wear masks at all times at the company's San Francisco and Washington offices unless they are eating or drinking, per The Times.
The bank also said in the memo that it would require anyone entering its US offices to be fully vaccinated, including clients, per The Times.
Goldman's new rules come amid a surge in cases of the Delta variant across the country. In New York City, where Goldman has its head office, 94% of tested cases in the past four weeks were caused by the highly contagious strain, according to local government data.
Vaccines work well against the Delta variant, but some vaccinated people are still catching COVID-19. In most cases, these people have reported mild symptoms, or none at all.
Companies have grappled with whether to mandate vaccinations for their employees in recent months. Earlier in August, Citigroup announced in a LinkedIn post that it would require its staff returning to its New York City office to get vaccinated.
In July, Walmart said that its corporate workers must be jabbed by early October, but exempted frontline workers from the mandate, per the Associated Press.
The Food and Drug Administration's full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on August 23 may encourage more companies to follow Goldman's example. The same day, President Joe Biden urged companies to mandate vaccines.
"If you're a business leader, a non-profit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that - require it," he said in a press briefing.
Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.