Blackstone requires U.S. staff to get COVID boosters

Blackstone is requiring U.S. staff to get COVID-19 booster shots to work in the office, joining Wall Street firms stepping up pressure on their workforces in recent days to get jabs and take more tests.

The world’s largest alternative asset manager told employees they must get boosters “as soon as practically possible,” a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Office workers will need to be tested on-site three times a week, she said.

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Wall Street is grappling with a surge in Covid infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, which has upended plans to get people back to their desks. Goldman Sachs said late last month it’s requiring boosters and doubling testing for office workers. Citigroup is threatening unvaccinated employees with termination this month.

Meanwhile, Bank of America is donating $100 to local food banks and hunger-relief organizations for each U.S. employee that registers their COVID-19 booster.

This week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned vaccine holdouts in New York that they won’t be able to work in the office — and that “we’re not going to pay you not to work in the office.”

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Last year, Blackstone asked U.S. professionals to return to its offices full-time by early June. But when COVID cases skyrocketed across the country later in the year, the firm let staffers work from home through Jan. 18 of this year. The company recently pushed back the return to Jan. 28, the spokeswoman said.