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With the new measures, Biden wants to fight against the rapidly expanding delta variant
Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP
The US government wants to contain the corona pandemic with the help of vaccination regulations. New regulations on vaccination are to apply to almost 100 million employees in the private sector and the healthcare sector. That's about two-thirds of all workers in the United States. US President Joe Biden's government is also tightening vaccination regulations for all federal government employees and suppliers. The plan is likely to be legally challenged. It could take months for the impact of the mandate to be felt.
Companies with more than 100 employees should be required to have all employees vaccinated or to be tested for an infection with the coronavirus at least once a week.
The regulation is currently being developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Labor and will apply to around 80 million private sector employees, the White House said.
"We're in a difficult phase that could last a while," Biden said.
"We can and will turn things around with COVID-19".
In addition, all employees in hospitals and health care facilities who accept payments from state health insurances will have to be vaccinated against Corona in the future.
Biden's plan would apply to more than 17 million people, it said.
The state programs Medicare and Medicaid mainly cover the elderly, the disabled and the needy.
Biden also wants to call on all US states to make vaccination compulsory for school employees and teachers.
75 days: mandatory vaccination for government employees
In addition, Biden ordered a mandatory vaccination for employees of the federal government.
There will be only a few exceptions for specific health or religious reasons, Biden's spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in the White House on Thursday.
The most recently introduced option of exempting yourself from compulsory vaccination through regular corona tests should thus be eliminated.
The regulation should also apply to companies that work for the government, she said.
Federal employees now have 75 days to get vaccinated, otherwise they face dismissal.
Except they fall into one of the limited exception categories.
The US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will publish its regulations for private companies that require vaccinations or tests in the coming weeks.
OSHA is planning enforcement action against those who fail to comply, with hefty fines of nearly $ 14,000 per violation.
The medical work requirement is implemented by a regulation of the health authority, which it wants to publish in October.
kim / dpa / Reuters