U.S. companies are relaxing many of the vaccine and other COVID-related requirements that had become a staple of corporate life in the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. As office occupancy nears pandemic-era highs in many U.S. cities, a number of employers have communicated new, looser safety protocols to workers. Some companies made masks optional in the office for all workers, while others dropped testing requirements for the unvaccinated or simplified the daily return-to-office questionnaires. The new protocols in many cases follow updated guidance from health authorities, who have moved away from blanket preventive measures in favor of a more targeted approach focused on limiting infection and severe illness in high-risk areas. Infections have edged up again in the U.S., and the omicron BA.2 variant accounts for more new COVID-19 cases.
