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Microsoft may have made plans to reopen its Redmond offices and other offices across the world, but COVID-19 was busy making new variants that aren’t without surprises. The reopening plans are now on hold.

Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s modern work CVP, said that due to the uncertainty of COVID-19, the software giant is opting not to forecast when its offices will fully reopen. However, he added that the company will be ready to jump back in “as soon as we’re able to do so safely based on public health guidance.”

He said that when the company has a new date, it will give staff a 30-day notice to prepare.

COVID-19 keeps changing Microsoft’s plans

This is not the first time the tech giant has decided to move the date for reopening offices. Last year, in October, Microsoft told officials it was pushing the opening date of the US-based offices from January this year to July.

In late March, Microsoft had another update about the COVID-19-inspired re-opening plans. It told employees that they would start with a soft reopen (stage 4) of the Puget Sound area Microsoft offices on March 29.

In April, it changed the date again to a full reopening with a July date to September 7 at the earliest.

A recent slew of Teams updates

The news comes after Microsoft announced an additional feature for Teams, including a feature that enables the integration of the Teams camera feed into a PowerPoint presentation, called Cameo.

It allows the presenter to specify how and where they want to appear on the screen with their slides.

Microsoft announced the introduction of AI-enabled cameras for use within Teams Rooms services, for in-room cameras to detect who is speaking, based on audio, facial movements, and gestures, among other additions.