Google reportedly extends work-from-home policy through summer 2021 amid COVID-19

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Google employees have been told they will have the option to work from home until at least July of next year, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Northern California-based company had previously said employees would be given the work-from-home option through the end of 2020.

This updated policy affects nearly all of the 200,000 full-time employees and contract workers who work for Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Employees have been working from home since March because of coronavirus concerns, but this extended work-from-home deadline could pressure other companies to follow suit in a period when California is seeing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rise dramatically.

Many other tech companies have tentatively set their return dates for January.