coronavirus pandemic
Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
Tokyo Olympics organizers say they have banished six people, including two silver medalists from the country of Georgia, for breaking rules designed to protect against COVID-19 cases.
Toshiro Muto, the games chief executive, says it was a “clear and serious violation” of the so-called playbooks of health and safety rules for two Georgian judokas to go sight-seeing.
Read:Olympic swimming ends with splashy new records, US gold
Vazha Margvelashvili and Lasha Shavdatuashvili were seen near Tokyo Tower on Tuesday, after their events were finished.
Muto says the Georgian embassy in Tokyo has apologized for the incident.
The other four were accredited contractors from Britain and the United States arrested for allegedly using cocaine before the Olympics opened.
Muto says there have been eight cases of games credentials being temporarily suspended.
In four cases, organizers collected a “signed pledge” from people suspected of breaking rules. Ten strict warnings were issued, Muto says.
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MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s Logan Martin capped quite a show in BMX freestyle’s Olympic debut, putting together a sterling first run to win gold at the Tokyo Games.
Britain’s Charlotte Worthington started the high-flying act by winning women’s gold and Martin followed with an equally-impressive performance.
The 27-year-old two-time world champion posted a 93.3 in his first ride and watched as the other eight riders failed to catch him. Martin went for a victory lap after the final rider made his second run, but cut it short after a hard landing on a jump.
Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers secured silver with a 92.05 on his second run and Britain’s Declan Brooks had a second-run 90.8 to take bronze.
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Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic gold medal on floor exercise.
USA Gymnastics says the six-time Olympic medalist has opted not to compete on floor.
She won gold in the event in Rio de Janeiro and placed second in qualifying last week. Jennifer Gadirova of Britain will replace Biles in Monday’s finals.
USA Gymnastics says Biles has not decided whether to participate in Tuesday’s balance beam final.
Biles is dealing with a mental block that in gymnastics is referred to as “the twisties.” She is having trouble figuring out where her body is in relation to the ground when in the air.
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MEDAL ALERT
Gong Lijiao of China has won her first Olympic gold medal in the shot put with a personal best of 20.58 meters.
The reigning two-time world champion produced two efforts over 20 meters on her last two attempts at the Olympic Stadium to cement her victory ahead of Raven Saunders of the United States, who took the silver medal with 19.79.
Veteran Valerie Adams of New Zealand won a bronze medal in her fifth and likely last Olympics. The 36-year-old Adams is a two-time Olympic champion and in Tokyo became the first woman to qualify for five Olympic finals in the shot.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Caeleb Dressel has won his fifth gold medal of the Tokyo Games, finishing off one of the great performances in Olympic history.
Dressel swam the butterfly leg as the Americans set a world record in the 4x100-meter medley relay with a time of 3 minutes, 26.78 seconds. That eclipses the mark of 3:27.28 they set at the 2009 Rome world championships in rubberized suits.
Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew and Zach Apple joined Dressel on the winning team. That ensured the Americans closed out the swimming competition with another gold in a race they’ve never lost at the Olympics.
Earlier in the session, Dressel won the 50 freestyle for his third individual title of the games. He also won two golds on the relays.
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MEDAL ALERT
Emma McKeon has claimed her historic seventh swimming medal at the Tokyo Olympics with Australia’s victory in the women’s 4x100 medley relay.
The 27-year-old from Brisbane becomes the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single games. The only men to do it are Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.
Capping a brilliant performance by the entire Aussie women’s team, McKeon followed her victory in the 50-freestyle earlier in the session to take the butterfly leg on the relay. Cate Campbell closed strong on the freestyle, touching in an Olympic record of 3 minutes, 51.60 seconds to edge the two-time defending champion Americans.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Kaylee McKeown and Chelsea Hodges started things off for the winning Australian team.
Abbey Weitzeil touched in 3:51.73 to give the United States a silver. She anchored a team that also included teenagers Regan Smith, Lydia Jacoby and Torri Huske.
The bronze went to Canada in 3:52.60.
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MEDAL ALERT
Britain’s Charlotte Worthington put on a show in BMX freestyle’s Olympic debut, landing the first 360 backflip in women’s competition to knock off American Hannah Roberts at the Tokyo Olympics.
Roberts, a three-time world champion at 19, set the bar in her opening run, landing a backflip with a tailspin for a 96.1.
Worthington crashed on her first run, but pulled out all the stops in her second. The 25-year-old added a front flip to her 360 backflip and closed with another backflip for a 97.5.
Roberts, the top seed, had a chance to top the Brit, but landed hard off an early jump and waved off the rest of her second run.
Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz took bronze with an 89.2 in her second run.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Bobby Finke has won gold in the grueling men’s 1,500-meter freestyle race.
The American won his second gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with another strong finishing kick.
Just as he did in winning the 800-meter freestyle, Finke stayed closed throughout the 30-lap race and turned on the speed at the end. He touched in 14 minutes, 39.65 seconds.
Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk took the silver in 14:40.66, while the bronze went to Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in 14:40.91. Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri faded to fourth in 14:45.01.
The top four were close nearly the entire race, often separated by less than a second at the turns. But that was right where Finke needed to be. After his closing lap in the 800, he knew he had the speed at the end to beat everyone else.
Finke has been perhaps the biggest American surprise at the pool. Relatively unknown before the U.S. trials, he become the first American male to win the 1,500 since Mike O’Brien at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
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MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s Emma McKeon has claimed the gold medal in the women’s 50-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
It is the sixth medal of the games for the Aussie star, who has one more chance to make it seven in the 4x100 medley relay.
McKeon completed a sweep of the 50- and 100-meter freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 23.81 seconds. The silver went to Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström in 24.07, while defending Olympic champion Pernille Blume of Denmark settled for bronze this time in 24.21.
American Abbey Weitzeil finished last in the eight-woman field.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Caeleb Dressel has won his fourth swimming gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a victory in the 50-meter freestyle.
Dressel cruised to a relatively easy victory in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching in an Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.
France’s Florent Manaudou repeated as the Olympic silver medalist in 21.55, while Brazil’s Bruno Fratus claimed the bronze in 21.57 -- edging out American Michael Andrew for the final spot on the podium.
Dressel has one more shot at a gold in the 4x100 medley relay, an event the United States has never lost at the Olympics. He’ll swim the butterfly leg in a race that caps nine days of swimming competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
If Dressel claims a fifth victory, he would join Americans Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany’s Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics. Phelps did it three times.
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Katie Ledecky is bidding farewell to the Tokyo Games after claiming four medals, two of them gold.
The American swimming star went on Twitter to post her thanks to the people of Tokyo and everyone who gave her “tremendous support this week and over the years!” Even though the stands were largely empty at the Olympic pool because of the coronavirus pandemic, Ledecky says she “could hear you all!”
Ledecky wasn’t quite as successful as at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she swept her three individual events and also won a gold and a silver in the relays.
But she did win gold in her two longest events, the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle, in addition to swimming a brilliant anchor leg that almost pulled out a gold for the United States in the 4x200 free relay.
Along the way, Ledecky became the first female swimmer to win six individual golds in her career, the first woman to win the 800 free at three straight Olympics, and one of just five American female swimmers to earn 10 career medals.
At age 24, Ledecky has no plans to stop swimming.
Read: Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
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UPSET ALERT
Americans Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes are out of the beach volleyball tournament after a three-set loss to Canada in the knockout round opener.
Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson beat the U.S. 22-24, 21-18, 15-13 at the Shiokaze Park venue. Americans Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena are set to meet Qatar in the afternoon session.
Claes and Sponcil entered the games as the hottest team in the world, winning the last two events of the pandemic-extended qualifying period to grab the second U.S. spot in Tokyo. In the process, they knocked out five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Global Covid situation worsening as cases near 198 million
The overall number of global Covid cases is fast approaching 198 million, as the world continues to battle against the devastating second wave of the pandemic.
Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening as the Delta variant of Covid-19 has now been detected in 124 territories worldwide, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 197,767, 859 while the death toll from the virus reached 4,215,888 on Sunday morning.
Read: Global Covid cases top 197mn as Delta variant presents new challenges
So far, 4,078,901,841 vaccine doses have been administered across the world.
The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 34,975,540 cases. Besides, 613,135 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.
Brazil registered 910 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 556,370, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the total caseload rose to 19,917,855 after 37,582 new cases were detected.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 31,613,993 on Saturday as 41,649 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 593 deaths due to the pandemic since Friday morning took the total death toll to 423,810.
Situation in Bangladesh
As health authorities scramble to prevent the spread of the Delta variant, Bangladesh added 218 fatalities to its national tally on Saturday.
The country registered over 200 single-day fatalities for the last six days as it is fighting a horrific wave of the pandemic that overwhelmed its healthcare systems.
Read: Covid kills 218 more in Bangladesh as its catastrophe continues
The country recorded 9,369 new cases on Saturday after testing 30,980 samples, and reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 258 – on July 27 and 16,230 infections the next day, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
There have been 1,249,484 positive cases and 20,685 coronavirus-related deaths here since the pandemic began, the DGHS said.
Astrazeneca’s fresh rollout
On a positive note, Bangladesh will resume vaccination with Astrazeneca shots within the next few days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
“We’ll resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs within the next 2-1 days. Those who failed to take the second dose after getting the first one will be able to get it now,” he said.
He said the government has an overall stock of 2 crore 60 lakh vaccine doses now.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday received the second consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan under the COVAX facility.
Read: Covid-19: What life is like when hospitals refuse admission!
The second consignment contains 7,81,320 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
A cargo flight of Cathay Pacific that carried the vaccine doses from Japan landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 3:15 pm.
The third consignment that will contain 6,16,780 doses of the vaccine is scheduled to arrive here on August 3.
Japan to widen virus emergency after record spike amid Games
Japan is set to expand the coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo to neighboring areas and the western city of Osaka on Friday in the wake of a record surge in infections while the capital hosts the Olympics.
A government panel approved the plan putting Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, as well as Osaka, under the state of emergency from Monday until Aug. 31. The measures already in place in Tokyo and the southern island of Okinawa will be extended until the end of August.
Read: Tropical storm to bring rain, wind, waves to northeast Japan
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is scheduled to officially announce the measures later Friday. Five other areas, including Hokkaido, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka, will be placed under less-stringent emergency restrictions.
Tokyo has reported a record rise in cases for three days in a row, including 3,865 on Thursday. The cases have doubled since last week, and officials have warned they may hit 4,500 a day within two weeks.
Officials said 2,995 were hospitalized, about half the current capacity of 6,000 beds, with some hospitals already full. More than 10,000 others were isolating at home or designated hotels, with nearly 5,600 waiting at home while health centers decide where they will be treated. Tokyo is also setting up a facility for those requiring oxygen while waiting for hospital beds.
At Friday’s meeting of government experts, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said the spike in Tokyo despite being under the state of emergency for two weeks is an “alarming development that is different from anything we have seen before.”
Read: Japan girds for a surreal Olympics, and questions are plenty
Nationwide, Japan reported 10,687 confirmed cases Thursday, exceeding 10,000 for the first time. It has recorded 15,166 fatalities from COVID-19, including 2,288 in Tokyo, since the pandemic began.
Japan has kept its cases and deaths lower than many other countries, but its seven-day rolling average is growing and now stands at 28 per 100,000 people nationwide and 88 per 100,000 in Tokyo, according to the Health Ministry. This compares to 18.5 in the United States, 48 in Britain and 2.8 in India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The emergency measures focus on an alcohol ban at eateries and karaoke bars and their shortened hours, but they have become less effective because people are only requested to stay and work from home. Many were defying the measures as they have become tired of restrictive life and less cooperative even at a time when the more infectious delta strain is spreading.
“We need to come up with measures that are effective,” Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike told a regular news conference Friday, without elaborating.
Read:Japan's Olympic security balancing act leaves few satisfied
Noting that adults in their 30s or younger dominate recent cases, Koike reminded them of following basic anti-virus measures including mask-wearing and avoiding having parties, urging them to “share the sense of crisis.”
As of Thursday, 27% of the Japanese population has been fully vaccinated. The percentage of the elderly who are fully vaccinated is 71.5%.
Barishal division logs 16 new Covid deaths
Barishal division has logged as many as 16 new Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Friday morning.
Of the deceased, eight were confirmed Covid patients while the remaining showed symptoms of the virus.
Read:Barishal division sees 20 more Covid deaths
Of them, some 12 died at Sher-E-Bangla Medical College and Hospital (SBMCH) alone, the officials said.
Divisional Health Director Dr Basudev Kumar Das said that 461 patients have died of Covid-19 in the division so far.
Besides, 738 people have tested positive for Covid in Barishal division in the past 24 hours.
Of the fresh Covid cases in the division, 231 have been identified in Barisal district alone. So far, 13,761 people have been infected with Covid in the district.
Some 32,822 active Covid patients have been identified in the division to date, according to the officials.
Read: Barishal division logs 854 new Covid cases
According to SBMCH authorities, 53 more patients have been admitted to the hospital in 24 hours till Friday morning.
Moreover, 143 Covid patients are currently undergoing treatment at the corona unit of SBMCH and 180 in the isolation ward of the hospital.
13 more die of Covid at Rajshahi hospital
Thirteen more people have died of Covid-19 at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) in the past 24 hours, officials said on Friday morning.
Of them, seven were Covid-positive patients, while five showed symptoms of the virus and one died of post-Covid complications, the officials said.
Read:17 more die of Covid at Rajshahi hospital
Hospital director Brigadier General Shamim Yazdani said that of the deceased, six were from Rajshahi district, three each from Natore and Naogaon, and one from Chapai Nawabganj district.
So far, 553 patients have died in the Covid ward of the hospital in the month of July, while the number was 405 in June.
In the past 24 hours, 65 new patients have been admitted to the Covid-19 ward of the hospital and 50 were released after recovery.
Read:Rajshahi hospital sees 18 more Covid deaths in 24 hrs
Some 425 patients are currently undergoing treatment at the 513-bed hospital. Of them, 20 are being treated in the ICU, said the hospital director.
Of the admitted patients, some 189 have tested positive for Covid-19, while 174 are symptomatic and 62 have post-Covid health complications.
Do I need to get tested for COVID-19 if I’m vaccinated?
Do I need to get tested for COVID-19 if I’m vaccinated?
Yes, if you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19.
Read: Should vaccinated people mask up with COVID-19 cases rising?
The latest guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who are fully vaccinated should get tested three to five days after a potential exposure, even if they don’t have symptoms.
That change comes two months after the agency eased its initial testing guidance. In May, the CDC said vaccinated people face very little risk of serious illness and don’t need to be tested in most cases, even if exposed to someone who was sick. The thinking was that vaccinated people also weren’t likely to spread it to others.
But the agency says it’s reversing that guidance because of the more contagious delta variant, which now accounts for most COVID-19 infections.
The COVID-19 vaccines are still very good at protecting people from getting seriously ill, but the CDC says new data shows vaccinated people infected with the delta variant could spread it to others.
Read:Bhutan fully vaccinates 90% of eligible adults within a week
Doctors, nurses and other health care workers should consult with their employers, some of whom may require routine testing for their staff. People working in prisons and homeless shelters are also generally subject to stepped-up testing requirements.
U.S. citizens returning from abroad still have to present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flights home, regardless of their vaccination status. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should still isolate for 10 days, the CDC says.
India's steel consumption set to break records as Covid-hit economy revives
India’s steel consumption is set to break records this year, reversing the performance in 2020 when demand crashed as the pandemic upended economic activity, reports Hindustan Times.
Economic activity in the country has revived as a deadly second wave of infections abates. The International Monetary Fund expects India to grow 9.5% this year. That’s in contrast to last year, when the economy tipped into an unprecedented 7.3% contraction, as a nationwide lockdown brought the country to a standstill.
Read:Why Indian energy companies have the upper hand in renewables boom
Demand for steel is expected to surge 17% to 110 million tons in the year started April, according to Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director of JSW Steel Ltd. Consumption of steel in 2020 fell year-on-year for the first time in at least a decade-and-a-half.
Rising power consumption and mining activity, along with higher tractor and passenger vehicles sales is pushing up demand for the metal, Rao said in an interview.
“We have seen a good revival in the month of June and July,” he said. “Construction demand will also pick up after the festive season.”
Read: India, US pledge to bolster strategic ties
That’s likely to impact exports, which jumped to 17 million tons last year. Shipments will fall slightly below that level this year as steelmakers divert more supply to meet local demand, Rao said. JSW’s exports will remain steady at the 4 million tons shipped last year, he said.
The company, which reported its best quarterly profits in the three months through June, said higher volumes and growing local demand are helping the company offset rising input prices.
Covid claims 41 more lives in Khulna division
Khulna division has logged 41 new Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Thursday.
According to the health director's office, 15 people died in Khulna, nine in Kushtia, five in Jhenaidah, four in Jashore, three in Meherpur, two each in Narail and Magura, and one in Chuadanga district.
Read:16 more die of Covid at Khulna hospitals
Besides, some 1,019 new Covid infections have been detected in 10 districts of the division in the past 24 hours, pushing up the total cases to 91,568.
Similarly, the total death toll in the division has now reached 2,335, said the officials.
Earlier on Wednesday, some 866 people tested positive for Covid-19 while some 31 succumbed to the virus, according to the divisional health department.
Read: Khulna division sees 46 Covid deaths amid deepening crisis
In Khulna division, the first case of Covid-19 was detected in Chuadanga on March 19, 2020.
So far, 66,580 people have been recovered in the division.
People give a fig to govt’s lockdown rules in Dhaka
Even though the Covid-19 crisis is deepening, traffic on the streets of capital Dhaka is increasing with every passing day amid the lockdown enforced to contain the highly transmittable Delta variant of the virus.
The number of vehicles and people increased substantially on Dhaka streets on Thursday, the seventh day of the 14-day strict lockdown.
Read: Lockdown Breaches: 562 arrested as movement of vehicles, people increase on 6th day
Many people were seen coming out and wandering without any valid reason while health protocols are hardly maintained in most cases.
Biden to launch vaccine push for millions of federal workers
Hoping to set a model for employers nationwide, President Joe Biden will announce Thursday that millions of federal workers must show proof they’ve received a coronavirus vaccine or submit to regular testing and stringent social distancing, masking and travel restrictions.
An individual familiar with the president’s plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm details that had yet to be announced publicly, emphasized that the new guidance is not a vaccine mandate for federal employees and that those who decide not to get vaccinated aren’t at risk of being fired.
The new policy amounts to a recognition by the Biden administration that the government — the nation’s biggest employer — must do more to boost sluggish vaccination rates, as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rebound, driven largely by the spread of the more infectious delta variant.
Biden has placed the blame for the resurgence of the virus squarely on the shoulders of those who aren’t vaccinated.
Read:Biden woos working class with new ‘buy American’ efforts
“The pandemic we have now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Biden said during a visit Wednesday to a truck plant in Pennsylvania, where he urged the unvaccinated to “please, please, please, please” get a shot. A day earlier, he mused that “if those other 100 million people got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”
The administration on Wednesday was still reviewing details of the expected guidance, and significant questions about its implementation and scope remained. It was unclear whether the president would issue similar requirements for the military and how federal contractors would be affected. The administration is announcing the move now with the hope that it will give agencies enough time to craft their own guidelines and plans for implementation before workers return fully to the office.
The announcement is expected to come as part of broader remarks Thursday that Biden promised would outline “the next steps in our effort to get more Americans vaccinated.”
The individual said the conversation around the new vaccine guidance had been in the works for some time and was intended to provide an example for private companies to follow as they get ready for workers to return this fall. But it’s just the latest policy shift from the administration during a week of new coronavirus mitigation efforts, as the White House grapples with a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations nationwide driven by the delta variant and breakthrough infections among vaccinated Americans.
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first federal agency to require vaccinations, for its health workers. And on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its masking guidelines and said that all Americans living in areas with substantial or high coronavirus transmission rates should wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status.
With the latest CDC data showing that Washington, D.C., is facing substantial rates of transmission, by Wednesday reporters and staff were again masking up at the White House.
The new guidance on vaccinations for federal employees reflects the reality that Biden’s national vaccination drive has fallen short of his goals. Public opinion seems to have hardened around the vaccines, with a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finding that among American adults who have not yet received a vaccine, 35% say they probably will not, and 45% say they definitely will not.
“Doing more of the same just will not work,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner who’s become a leading public health commentator on the pandemic.
“This is the logical next step,” Wen continued. “If you want to be going in to work and interacting with other people, then you have to be sure you wouldn’t have COVID, and you can do that either by getting vaccinated or by testing.”
About 60% of American adults have been fully vaccinated. Biden missed his goal of having 70% of adults get at least one shot by July 4. The latest figure is 69.3%.
Federal workers and contractor employees are dispersed throughout the nation, including many in states where vaccine skepticism runs high. New York University public service professor Paul Light suggested the new guidance from the Biden administration could help boost vaccination rates in states where there’s been significant resistance.
Read: Biden says US combat mission in Iraq to conclude by year end
“You can’t throw a stick without hitting a fed in many parts of the country,” he said.
Light noted that the government’s influence goes well beyond the people it directly employs. Federal contractors and grant recipients will have to weigh how they’ll adjust to vaccination requirements from Washington.
“If the federal government were to say that everybody who works for the government directly or indirectly must be vaccinated, that’s a massive footprint,” Light said.
He estimated that the federal government directly employs 2.2 million full-time civil servants, plus 1.4 million active-duty military personnel and about 500,000 workers in the U.S. Postal Service. Private contractor employees working on federal jobs number about 5 million, and there are 1.8 million other people employed under federal grants.
While the administration hopes the new guidance will boost vaccination rates, having Biden wade squarely into the middle of the ongoing political debate surrounding vaccines could backfire if it further fuels GOP criticism and distrust of the vaccine among the president’s detractors.
The AP-NORC poll found that views on vaccinations divide sharply along party lines, with Republicans far more likely than Democrats to say they have not been vaccinated and definitely or probably won’t be, 43% to 10%.
Indeed, South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, who has resisted the new mask requirements on Capitol Hill, hinted at the fight to come over the new guidelines.
“To require individuals to provide proof of vaccination would be a massive intrusion on the doctor-patient relationship and the privacy of the individual,” he said in a statement.
The Biden administration may also have to grapple with legal challenges to the latest guidelines.
The federal workplace is governed by layers of rules and regulations, so private employers as well as state and local governments will be looking at the White House vaccination policy to signal how far they can go without triggering resistance from employees or even lawsuits.
But while the Justice Department and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have both said no federal laws prevent businesses from requiring vaccinations as a condition of employment, litigation is certain to follow workplace mandates, said Sharon Perley Masling, an employment lawyer who leads the COVID-19 task force at Morgan Lewis.
Read: Biden says getting vaccinated ‘gigantically important’
“It’s a really challenging issue for employers,” Masling said. “We have seen employers explore a whole range of options, from encouraging vaccinations, to incentivizing vaccinations, to mandating vaccinations for new hires, or for everyone.”
Among examples from major companies, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are requiring new employees to show proof of vaccination. Goldman Sachs is requiring its employees to disclose their vaccination status but is not mandating they be vaccinated.
If an employer does set a hard requirement, employees can ask for an exemption for medical or religious reasons under federal civil rights laws.
According to EEOC rules, the employer must provide “reasonable accommodation that does not pose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business.” Some accommodations could include masking up at work, social distancing, working a modified shift, regular COVID-19 testing or the option to work remotely, or even offering a reassignment.