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90,000 Google employees just received access to free weekly COVID tests. the the Wall Street newspaper first announced that every U.S. employee of Google (and its affiliates, including YouTube) will be able to sign up for a free home test. This differs from other companies, like Amazon, which only offer testing to employees who still have to work in a physical location, like a store or warehouse.
This is apparently something that Google employees are interested in as the provider’s website crashed after it went live. Employees are promised that they will receive the test within two to four days of requesting one, and that they will get the results within two days of receipt by the lab.
According to the Wall Street newspaper report, Google is paying its partner, BioIQ, $ 50 per test. This comes down to $ 4.5 million per week multiplied by 90,000 employees.
Of course, the $ 4.5 million figure assumes every employee takes advantage of the offer, although a Google spokesperson said the company recommends doing so. It’s also a very low cost compared to Google’s profit margins.
The Google spokesperson also said The edge that interns will also be eligible for the program and that it is expected to expand to international employees in 2021. The company hopes the testing will help reduce the number of asymptomatic spreaders if any of its employees were infected.
At the start of the pandemic, President Trump asserted that Google would create a website and a national system to access COVID tests. This was not true, although an Alphabet division briefly offered testing in some areas. Google has done other work for the public, such as creating a contact tracing system with Apple and improving the information it displays on its search results.
Correction: The original version of this story said it was a Google site that crashed under load. It was the BioIQ site. We regret the mistakes.
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