90,000 Google employees have just received access to free weekly COVID tests. Wall Street Journal first reported the news that every Google employee in the US (and its affiliates, including YouTube) will be eligible to sign up for a free home test. This differs from other companies, such as Amazon, which only offers tests to employees who still have to work in a physical location, such as a retail location or warehouse.
This seems to be of interest to Google employees, as the seller’s site crashed after it went live. Employees are promised that they will receive the test within two to four days of requesting one and that they will receive the results back within two days of receiving the lab.
In accordance with Wall Street Journal report, Google pays its partner, BioIQ, $ 50 per test. This amounts to $ 4.5 million per week, when multiplied by 90,000 employees.
Of course, the $ 4.5 million figure assumes that each employee takes advantage of the offer, although a Google spokesman said the company recommends that they do so. It is also a very low cost compared to Google’s profit margins.
A Google spokesman also said The Verge that trainees will also be eligible for the program and that it should be extended to international employees in 2021. The company hopes that testing will help reduce the number of asymptomatic spreads if any of its employees become infected.
In the early days of the pandemic, President Trump claimed that Google would create a website and a national system for gaining access to COVID tests. This was not true, although an Alphabet division briefly offered tests in some regions. Google has done other work for the public, such as creating a tracking system with Apple and improving the information it displays in its search results.
Correction: The original version of this story said it was a Google site that crashed under load. It was the BioIQ site. We regret the mistakes.