HSBC brings back Covid rules in NY

HSBC has reintroduced daily testing and masks in its New York office after a rise in American Covid cases.

Major companies are eyeing new measures to stop the spread of the virus at workplaces. At the end of last month an average of 110,000 Covid cases had been reported each day in the US, according to a New York Times database, while hospitalisations were up 29pc to around 26,100 per day.

As a result of the rising cases, sources said HSBC has asked its New Yorkbased staff to put their masks back on and conduct daily tests, a decision which one source said coincided with a visit from senior management.

A HSBC insider said Europe’s biggest bank had “adjusted precautions on the back of an increase in Covid cases”.

Fresh concerns about rising cases come at an awkward time for Wall Street bank bosses, who have been urging people to get back to work for months as figures show that just 40pc of office staff in the city have returned.

New York mayor Eric Adams last month said powerful business leaders such as JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, who was paid £28m last year, need to “get on the train” to show that New York is back.

US banks have been much stricter than Uk-based lenders on Covid rules, with Citigroup saying earlier this year that it would fire all unvaccinated US staff as it pressed ahead with one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the world.

Citi, which has a large British presence, did not enforce the rules onto London bankers.

At the time, more than 90pc of its US workforce was fully jabbed although some of those who weren’t were reported to push back against the rule, highlighting a divide in corporate America over vaccine mandates imposed by President Joe Biden.