Apple delays US office return by at least a month as Covid spikes

Tim Cook said in June that employees should begin returning to offices in early September for at least three days a week

After 10 weeks of global declines in Covid deaths, the highly transmissible delta variant is driving a new uptick. Picture: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg

Apple is pushing back its return to office deadline by at least a month to October at the earliest, responding to a resurgence of Covid variants across many countries, people familiar with the matter said.

The iPhone maker becomes one of the first US tech giants to delay plans for a return to normality as Covid-19 persists around the world and cases involving a highly transmissible variant increase. Apple will give its employees at least a month’s warning before mandating a return to offices, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal policy.