Apple Implementing COVID-19 Prevention Measures as Employees Return to Work

As employees begin returning to work at Apple's Apple Park and Infinite Loop campuses, Apple is implementing COVID-19 prevention measures that include testing, social distancing, and temperature checks, reports Bloomberg.

appleparkempty
Some employees, such as hardware and software engineers, began returning to ‌Apple Park‌ in May. Some of the people who are working at the campus are doing so for just a few days a week, with Apple limiting the number of people allowed in closed spaces, such as elevators.

Employees who return to the campus are being provided with an option to take a coronavirus nasal-swab test, while temperature checks are mandatory. Apple has closed many of its break room kitchens, and is asking employees to wear masks through posted signs.

‌Apple Park‌ features large open work spaces where employees worked in close proximity, but Bloomberg says that Apple is going to need to make changes to bring the rest of its workforce back to the campus. For now, some employees are continuing to work from home.

Apple's head of retail and people Deirdre O'Brien told employees in May that the return to Apple's campuses worldwide would be done in phases over the course of a few months. The first phase, in which some employees are returning, is in progress now.

A second phase in July will see more employees return to work, though Apple has said that its plans are fluid and may change based on local and state stay-at-home orders.

Apple has also begun reopening its Apple retail locations worldwide, and in the United States, more than 100 stores are open. Many of these locations are limited to device pickups and repairs.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
66 months ago

As employees begin returning to work at Apple's Apple Park and Infinite Loop campuses, Apple is implementing COVID-19 prevention measures that include testing, social distancing, and temperature checks, reports Bloomberg ('https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/apple-offering-covid-19-testing-to-staff-returning-to-offices').
I really don't know how socially distant you can get at Apple Park…

Unless—



Attachment Image
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Erehy Dobon Avatar
66 months ago
Apple isn't forcing anything. They are following guidelines set by the County of Santa Clara (SCC) Public Health Officer, specifically as it pertains to essential business operations in offices.

But don't listen to me, go knock yourself out on the original SCC document:

https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/public-health-orders.aspx#businesses

which actually uses Google and Apple as examples. Just use Command-F and search for "goog" or "apple" in your web browser.

This is an amended document from the May 22 order which started letting more people back into their offices.

Apple is not doing anything special that Google, Cisco, Intel, AMD, HP, Adobe, NVidia, etc. aren't doing. If Facebook is doing something different (which I doubt), that's because they are headquartered in San Mateo County, just adjacent to the north of Santa Clara County.

It's worth pointing out that the senior management of all of these large corporations have been in repeated close and ongoing consultation with the County of Santa Clara COVID-19 response team.

SCC Public Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody did not randomly list a bunch of bullet points for fun-and-games nor did Tim Cook just randomly say, "Hey, let's start sending people back to the campus."

Apple is not the first company on this planet to let people start returning to the office. There is now ample precedence in many other jurisdictions around the planet about these phased returns.

It is also very worth pointing out that Santa Clara County actually led the entire nation in their shelter-in-place policy and is one of the slowest counties to lift restrictions within the state. SCC is not blindly walking into unchartered territory, not while Dr. Cody is at the helm.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
66 months ago
So Apple is doing what every other company is doing. Must suck for Mark Gurman. Now that he’s not getting any juicy rumors anymore he’s reduced to publishing banal stuff like this.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
66 months ago
So much for the "open office" layout that has been all the rage - getting rid of cubicles so that everyone is within eyeshot (aka call center layout).
The future might require a total rethinking (and remodeling) of office layouts with cubicles returning but with hermetically sealed walls all the way up to the ceiling.
Oh well.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Williesleg Avatar
66 months ago
They should all work from home.
Why is apple forcing this?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
glowplug Avatar
66 months ago
Who could have guessed this would be the final nail in the coffin of open floorplans.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)