Biden to demand COVID-19 vaccines and testing for millions of private workers

President BidenJoe BidenBiden administration prepares legal action against Texas abortion law: report Police expect Capitol fencing to be reinstalled for September 18 rally Elder warns of ” shenanigans’ in California recall elections MORE will announce a new rule on Thursday require all private employers with 100 or more employees to prescribe vaccines or weekly tests.

A senior administration official said the rule would be issued by the Labor Ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration “in the coming weeks”, and that the implementation schedule will likely reflect the window of about 90 days other private sector employers, such as Tyson Foods and United Airlines, have required.

The requirement could impact nearly 80 million workers, the administration official said, and if a company does not comply with the rule, it faces fines of up to 14,000. $ per violation.

The new rule for employers is part of a series of aggressive new measures Biden will announce in a speech Thursday night to boost vaccination rates in the coming weeks and rapidly increase the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity, according to senior administration officials familiar with the plans.

The new national strategy, dubbed “Exiting the pandemic”, represents a redoubling of the administration’s efforts to combat the threat of the delta variant of the coronavirus. The administration has gone through a summer marked by an increase in infections and fierce resistance to public health measures from many Republican governors.

Biden is also significantly expanding vaccination requirements for health workers. Last month, the administration said it would require all staff at around 15,000 nursing homes to be vaccinated to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, a move that would affect about 1.3 million employees. The rule is expected to be released later this month.

Under the new plan, workers at most other health facilities with Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, including large hospitals, will need to be vaccinated. The rules would affect 50,000 suppliers and about 17 million workers, but officials did not have an immediate effective date.

The administration will also impose drastic new vaccination requirements on federal employees and entrepreneurs.

A senior administration official told reporters that under a new executive order to be announced by the president, federal employees will have 75 days to be fully immunized, with limited exemptions for religious or medical reasons. There will be no testing option. The order will cover around 100 million workers.

“It’s simple; if you want to work for the federal government, you have to be vaccinated. If you want to do business with the government, you have to vaccinate your workforce,” the official said.

Vaccines will also be mandatory for all teachers and staff in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs, as well as schools and youth programs run by the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Indian Education.

The embracing of mandates represents a major escalation for the administration, which was previously reluctant to impose them.

President Biden will also call on governors to vaccinate all teachers and school staff, and urge schools to implement regular COVID-19 testing, according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Public health experts believe that regular screening of children and staff will help prevent the spread of infections.

In the spring, the federal government set aside $ 10 billion in funding for COVID-19 testing for teachers, staff and students, but few have benefited from the drop in cases.