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Google pushes back plan to reopen offices

The search giant's offices will stay closed until at least September.

Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
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Google may not be bringing its employees back to the office until September.

Claudia Cruz/CNET

Google is delaying the reopening of its US offices after coronavirus cases surged in several states. CEO Sundar Pichai previously said the search giant would start bringing workers back beginning July 6, but an internal memo said its offices will remain closed until Sept. 7 at the earliest. The memo was previously reported by Bloomberg, and confirmed to CNET by Google.

As at many companies, Google employees have been working from home to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Back in May, Pichai told employees that they'll likely work remotely for the rest of 2020.

The memo, from Chris Rackow, global security vice president, noted that the company wanted to see that "the US outlook as a whole is stable" before it proceeded with reopening plans.

As of early Wednesday, the US has more than 2.6 million confirmed cases, with over 127,000 deaths and 720,000 recoveries. Globally, there are over 10 million confirmed cases, with nearly 512,000 deaths and 5.4 million recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 database.

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