San Francisco, Aug 6 (IANS): As the US sees a surge in Covid cases especially the spread of Delta variant, Amazon on Friday announced to delay its return-to-office timeline by January 2022.

Earlier, the e-commerce giant had decided to reopen offices in September.

"As we continue to closely watch local conditions related to Covid-19, we are adjusting our guidance for corporate employees in the US and other countries where we had previously anticipated that employees would begin coming in regularly the week of Sept 7. We are now extending this date to Jan 3, 2022," the company said in an update.

"Our return-to-office timeline will vary globally in accordance with local conditions," the company added.

The number of people in the hospital in the US has more than tripled over the past month, from an average of roughly 12,000 to almost 43,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The variant has sent cases surging to 94,000 a day on average.

Last month, Amazon said it was halting its on-site testing programme for its warehouses but would resume the tests if official health guidance changed.

Microsoft has also pushed its full office reopening date from September to "no earlier than October 4th, 2021," as the Covid cases rise in the US.

The company has also told employees and vendors that starting from next month, they will need to show a proof of vaccination before entering any office building in the US.

Facebook said last week that it would require its US employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 when they return to the office.

Twitter has shut offices in US, and Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the office in the later part of the year.