Google has contracted with health-care firm BioIQ to send out the testing kits.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Google has come up with a new perk for Silicon Valley’s famously pampered workforce: Free, weekly, at-home Covid-19 testing.
The search giant rolled out the new benefit this week for all of its 90,000 U.S. employees, a spokesman said. The initiative guarantees all of them a weekly, at-home nasal swab and a lab analysis—whether they are reporting for duty in-person, or not. The company is recommending that every staffer be tested weekly.
The offer proved so popular that Google’s internal website for it crashed shortly after going live Thursday. Employees at Google’s flagship search properties, as well as company arms including YouTube, Google X, fiber internet and artificial intelligence, all have access to the testing. International Google employees will be offered access starting next year.
While other companies, ranging from Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -0.08% to Delta Air Lines Inc., DAL -1.05% have begun testing staff who report on-site, Google’s appears to be the largest yet aimed at employees stuck at home since March. Google staff since that time has been under a work-from-home order, recently extended to September 2021.
Testing, Testing
The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests look for the virus’s genetic material in samples collected by a self-administered nasal swab. Google contracted with health-care firm BioIQ Inc. to send out the kits and find the laboratories where the results can be processed quickly.
Employees are guaranteed a test within three days of requesting one through the internal website, and results are back within two days of a lab receiving the sample. The initiative is aimed at asymptomatic carriers, or individuals who may carry the virus without showing signs of it.
BioIQ operates workforce testing for other businesses in person, including Pinewood Atlanta Studios.
Google will pay roughly $50 apiece for the testing, a person familiar with the matter said. That would put Google on the hook to pay as much as $4.5 million for weekly testing. Google set a cap of two tests a week per employee. The Google spokesman said the company won’t ask for government or insurance reimbursement.
Last year, Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG -0.97% made $660 million in profits a week.
Write to Rob Copeland at [email protected] and Sarah Krouse at [email protected]
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