More businesses are making plans to return their employees to the workplace as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines slows the spread of the virus. Ford Motor plans to offer a new hybrid work schedule that gives workers more flexibility over when they report to the office, starting this summer. Google said it will spend more than $7 billion this year to expand offices and data centers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, "Coming together in person to collaborate and build community is core to Google's culture."
Here are some of the biggest developments Thursday:
The U.S. is recording at least 54,800 new Covid-19 cases and at least 1,200 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using Johns Hopkins University data.
The following data was compiled by Johns Hopkins University:
- Global cases: More than 121.59 million
- Global deaths: At least 2.68 million
- U.S. cases: More than 29.65 million
- U.S. deaths: At least 538,799