Wall Street Orders Workers Back to Office by February

Wall Street employers Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Chase are again ordering New York City workers back to the office, with most leaning toward a date at the beginning of February, according to the Daily Mail.

News of a return to work comes, The New York Times reported, as COVID-19 cases in the Big Apple have seen a 70% drop from 40,150 on Jan. 10 to 12,012 on Monday.

"We were generally skewing around 25% to 30% late last year – we'll probably reach that level and then our hope is that over the course of the spring, and certainly into the summer, that we will get closer to that 50%," according to BNP Paribas' HR Change & Transformation chief Kevin Abraszek.

Abraszek noted unvaccinated workers would be permitted to stay home, while those who wish to work in the office must undergo vaccination. But he added BNP Paribas will continue to look at "that decision and that policy in the early part of this year."

According to the Mail, both Citigroup and BNP Paribas have set a return date for Feb. 7, while both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have Feb. 1 return dates.

President Joe Biden's COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he expects cases across the country to dip downward.

"Control means you're not eliminating it, you're not eradicating it, but it gets down into such a low level that it's essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with," Fauci told ABC's "This Week."

But he added, "things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they're going in the right direction right now."

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