Vaccination or tests
USA: Corona vaccination requirements for millions of employees
In the USA, a good 58 percent of the population has so far been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The US vaccination campaign is making slow progress. Now the government is increasing the pressure: from January 4th, more stringent regulations are to apply to more than 80 million employees.
In the fight against the corona pandemic, more than 80 million employees in the USA will soon be subject to extensive vaccination or testing requirements. The US government announced details of the requirements announced by President Joe Biden for companies with more than 100 employees.
As of January 4th, these employers will have to require their employees to have either a full vaccination against corona or weekly negative tests. “This regulation affects 84 million workers,” said a government official.
Because vaccines are safe and free, authorities did not require companies to offer or pay for corona tests, it said. Companies that do not comply with the requirements would have to pay a fine. The sum could vary between around 14,000 US dollars (around 12,000 euros) and more than 136,000 US dollars (around 117,000 euros) – depending on the severity or number of violations.
Rules for healthcare too
The vaccination or test regulations also apply to health care workers whose facilities receive federal funding from the public health insurances Medicare and Medicaid. “The regulation applies to around 76,000 health facilities and more than 17 million health care workers,” it said. Biden had announced these measures weeks ago.
The US vaccination campaign is making slow progress. So far, a good 58 percent of the population of around 330 million people have finally been vaccinated. In the summer, the USA was hit hard by the delta wave – but the number of infections is now falling again significantly. Biden had repeatedly advertised the vaccination against Corona. In view of the slow progress, however, he increased the pressure and relied on extensive vaccination requirements.