Google has come up with a new advantage for the pampered Silicon Valley workforce: free, weekly, home-tested testing of Covid-19.
The search giant launched the new benefit for all 90,000 American employees this week, a spokesman said. The initiative guarantees everyone a weekly nasal swab at home and a lab test – whether they report for personal service or not. The company recommends that each staff be tested weekly.
The offer proved so popular that Google’s internal site for it collapsed shortly after it was launched on Thursday. Employees at Google’s flagship search properties, as well as the company’s weapons, including YouTube, Google X, fiber internet and artificial intelligence, have access to testing. Google’s international employees will be given access starting next year.
While other companies ranging from Tyson Foods Inc.
TSN -0.08%
to Delta Air Lines Inc.,
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have started testing staff reporting on the spot, Google seems to be the largest intended for employees left at home since March. Google staff has since been the subject of a home order, recently extended 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 has contracted with healthcare company BioIQ Inc. to send the kits and find the labs where the results can be processed quickly.
Employees are guaranteed a test within three days of requesting one through the internal website, and the results are returned within two days of receiving the sample by a laboratory. The initiative is aimed at asymptomatic carriers or people who can carry the virus without showing signs of it.
BioIQ personally operates workforce testing for other companies, including Pinewood Atlanta Studios.
Google will pay about $ 50 a piece for the test, said someone familiar with the matter. That would put Google on the hook to pay up to $ 4.5 million for weekly testing. Google has set a limit of two tests per week per employee. A Google spokesman said the company would not seek government or insurance reimbursement.
Last year, Google parent Alphabet Inc.
Google -0.97%
made $ 660 million a week.
In 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
Write to Rob Copeland at [email protected] and Sarah Krouse at [email protected]
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