Google now requires field workers to undergo a weekly COVID-19 check.0

A memo obtained by CNBC on Thursday shows that Google requires anyone traveling to an office or facility in the United States to be tested for COVID-19 and test negative. Chief health officer Karen DeSalvo said in the memo that employees who frequent offices must be tested once a week, and employees are asked to report on their vaccinations and wear medical masks indoors.

Google spokeswoman Lora Lee Erickson confirmed to The Verge that a new temporary COVID-19 policy is now being implemented, namely "anyone entering a U.S. campus must get a recent negative COVID-19 test before coming to the site," and that it is making various tests available for free.

Erickson said Google offers free at-home testing to full-time employees and contractors through BioIQ's PCR-based nasal swab test, but Bloomberg reported this week that full-time employees also have access to Cue Health's molecular tests, which take just a few minutes to get results. On the other hand, according to a tweet from the Alphabet union, contractors specifically got a mailed BioIQ test, which means they have to wait longer to get the results. Erickson said some Google contractors in the company's data centers can use Cue machines for rapid field testing.

These changes came in the context of a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases, as well as the spread of the Omicron variant. The new policies complement Google's December directive, which requires employees to be vaccinated or risk being forced to take time off and ultimately being fired. The company postponed the mandatory return to the office until sometime in August this year.

This week, Meida also raised its health policy for employees, requiring anyone who returns to the office when it opens at the end of March to receive a dose of the booster vaccine.