Google has introduced a new benefit for Silicon Valley’s famous pampered workforce: weekly free trials of Covid-19 at home.
The search giant deployed the new profit this week for all of its 90,000 U.S. employees, a spokesman said. The initiative guarantees all of them a weekly nasal swab at home and a laboratory analysis, whether or not they present in person. The company recommends that weekly tests be conducted on all employees.
The offer turned out to be so popular that Google’s internal website crashed shortly after it was released on Thursday. Employees of Google’s top search properties, as well as companies including YouTube, Google X, Fiber Internet, and Artificial Intelligence, have access to testing. Google’s international employees will have access starting next year.
While other companies, ranging from Tyson Foods Inc.
TSN -0.08%
at Delta Air Lines Inc.,
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have begun testing staff reporting on the ground, it looks like Google is the largest yet targeted at employees trapped at home since March. Since then, Google staff has been subject to a work order from home, recently expanded until September 2021.
Polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR, look for the genetic material of the virus in samples collected by a self-administered nasal swab. Google contracted with healthcare company BioIQ Inc. to submit the kits and find the labs where the results can be processed quickly.
Employees are guaranteed a test within three days of application through the internal website and the results will be returned two days after a lab receives the sample. The initiative is aimed at asymptomatic carriers or people who may carry the virus without showing signs of it.
BioIQ performs staff testing in person for other companies, including Pinewood Atlanta Studios.
Google will pay about $ 50 for each test, said one person familiar with the matter. That would cause Google to stick to paying up to $ 4.5 million for weekly testing. Google sets a limit of two weekly tests per employee. A Google spokesman said the company will not seek government or insurance reimbursement.
Last year, Google parent Alphabet Inc.
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made $ 660 million a week.
At a televised event on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence was given the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Second Lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams also received the vaccine. Photo: Andrew Harnik / Associated Press
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