United States to require all public employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or to wear masks and be tested regularly

President Joe Biden has taken a series of steps to push for COVID-19 vaccination in the United States, including requiring millions of federal employees to be vaccinated or comply with a series of restrictions., according to a White House statement released Thursday.

Those who do not “turn out to be fully vaccinated” will be required to wear a mask at work in any location, maintain physical distance from other employees and “meet a weekly or bi-weekly screening requirement.”said the statement released shortly before a speech by Biden.

In addition, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, will ask the Pentagon to add the covid-19 vaccine to the list of mandatory vaccines for the US military, since they are deployed “all over the world”, including in places where the disease is prevalent, the White House said in a statement.

Biden’s announcement regarding the officials is an attempt to go as far as his authority allows to advance the vaccination campaign in the United States., which has slowed significantly over the past two months.

President can’t order all Americans to get vaccinatedSomething that only state and local governments could do that would be very controversial in a country like the United States, where individual freedom is highly valued.

What he can do is give a mandate to those who work for the federal government, even if he did not want to come to the point of forcing them to be vaccinated, but wanted to give them a ” option “not to do so if they really refuse, according to the White House.

These rules will apply to the more than 4 million federal workers on earth in the United States and around the world., and the government will implement “similar standards” for all contractors in the Administration.

The White House will encourage private companies to institute similar mandates, as companies such as Google, Facebook or Lyft have already done, which have demanded that all workers returning to their offices be vaccinated.

As for the US military, Biden asked Pentagon to review “how and when they will add covid-19 vaccine to required list” for members of the military.

More than 70% of the US military are already fully vaccinatedWell above the 49% of the general population of the United States who received the full directive, according to Pentagon data.

The White House did not want to specify this Thursday what percentage of federal officials are already vaccinated.

The Biden government has also announced that it will reimburse expenses for small and medium-sized businesses that offer their employees time off to get vaccinated.; and called on school districts to set up portable immunization clinics to make it easier to get back to school in the fall.

In addition, Biden will also propose that states, territories and localities offer a reward of $ 100 to those who get vaccinated..

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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