By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) will require that employees and visitors to its U.S. offices receive booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine starting next year, a bank spokesperson said on Monday.
Starting in February, anyone eligible to receive a booster shot must have obtained one in order to enter Goldman offices. And beginning in January, the bank will require staff to get tested twice weekly for COVID, the spokesperson said.
Goldman's new policies, communicated to staff on Monday, follow a week of rising COVID infections across the United States.
Over the last seven days, the average number of new cases in the United States, where Goldman Sachs is based, has surged 55% to over 205,000 new infections per day, according to a Reuters tally.
Several Wall Street banks and investment firms cancelled holiday gatherings and allowed staff to work from home for the remainder of the year in response to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Before the Christmas holiday, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) told staff in the New York City area, where COVID cases were spiking, to work remotely, and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co delayed its planned Jan. 10 office return.
Jefferies Financial Group, one of the first firms to send staff home, is now targeting Jan. 17 to get workers back.
Goldman was among the Wall Street banks that have pushed hardest to bring staff back into offices. Since August, the bank has required vaccines for all staff and visitors entering its offices in the United States, and staff received COVID tests onsite once a week.
Goldman's new policy on the booster shots was originally reported by Bloomberg earlier on Monday.