Biden to announce new COVID-19 vaccination mandate

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden plans to announce new federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements Thursday, affecting nearly 100 million Americans, to increase vaccination rates and slow the spread of the delta variant. of the coronavirus, which claims thousands of lives each week and puts the nation’s economic recovery at risk.

The rules oblige all employers with more than 100 workers to require them to get vaccinated or undergo weekly diagnostic tests, a measure that affects about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million health facility workers who receive federal Medicare and Medicaid services will also need to be fully vaccinated.

Biden is also preparing to sign a decree to force all employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government to be vaccinated, without the possibility of opting for testing. That includes several million more workers.

The president is preparing to announce the requirements in a Thursday afternoon message from the White House as part of a new “action plan” to address the latest outbreak of coronavirus infections and the slowed pace of vaccination against the virus. COVID-19 that has generated doubts among the population regarding their handling of the pandemic.

Just two months ago, Biden prematurely declared the nation’s “independence” from the virus. Now, despite the fact that more than 208 million Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the United States records an increase of approximately 300% in new infections of COVID-19 per day, 2.5 times more hospitalizations and close to double deaths compared to the same dates last year

Biden’s plans were announced Thursday afternoon by White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other government officials.

After months of using promotions to increase vaccination rates, Biden takes a much firmer step, as his aides blame the population that has not received the injection of a marked spike in cases that is killing more than 1,000 people a day and jeopardizes the fragile economic recovery.

Psaki noted that Biden’s “overall goal here is to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans,” noting that about 80 million adults remain unvaccinated.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found that 54% of Americans approved of Biden’s handling of the public health crisis, down from 66% a month earlier.

In addition to vaccination requirements, Biden will double federal fines for passengers who refuse to wear masks during flights or keep their face covered in federal facilities in accordance with the standards of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

___

The Associated Press journalist Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

–