With the Delta variant spreading like wildfire throughout the U.S., Pfizer is taking extra measures to curb COVID-19 in its workforce.
This week, the pharma giant said it plans to require all U.S. workers and contractors to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing for the virus. Pfizer has about 29,400 employees in the U.S.
The company, which co-developed the first approved COVID-19 vaccine with German-based BioNTech, said it is also encouraging its employees in other countries to get the shot.
Pfizer has now joined a growing list of large corporations requiring workers to get inoculated. Google and Facebook have both recently announced that all employees at their U.S. locations will have to be vaccinated.
And although no other major pharma company has mandated vaccines so far, many have implemented other measures to slow the spread. AstraZeneca, for example, has made work-from-home policies more flexible, while Eli Lilly & Co. now requires workers to wear masks.
