White House says unvaccinated federal workers will face COVID-19 work restrictions

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The millions of U.S. federal workers will be required to verify they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 or face mandatory masking, weekly testing, distancing and other new rules, the Biden administration announced Thursday.

The strict new guidelines are aimed at boosting sluggish vaccination rates among the huge numbers of Americans who draw federal paycheques and to set an example for private employers around the country.

The administration is encouraging businesses to follow its lead on encouraging vaccinations by imposing burdens on the unvaccinated. Rather than mandating that federal workers receive vaccines, the plan will make life more difficult for those who are unvaccinated to encourage them to comply.

Biden is also directing the Defence Department to look into adding the COVID-19 shot to its list of required vaccinations for members of the military. And he has directed his team to take steps to apply similar requirements to all federal contractors.

A person is administered a COVID-19 vaccine in Wilmington, Calif., on Thursday. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Biden is also urging state and local governments to use funds provided by the coronavirus relief package to spur vaccinations by offering $100 to people who get the shots. Small- and medium-sized businesses will also receive reimbursements if they offer employees time off to get family members vaccinated.

Biden's move for the federal government â€" by far the nation's largest employer â€" comes in the face of surging coronavirus rates driven by pockets of vaccine resistance and the more infectious delta variant. A number of major corporations and some local governments are ordering new requirements on their own, but the administration feels much more is needed.

About 60 per cent of American adults have been fully vaccinated. Biden had set a July 4 goal to get at least one shot in 70 per cent of adults, and is still not quite there. The latest figure is 69.3 per cent.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the executive branch employed more than 2.7 million civilians in 2020, with some of the most significant numbers in Republican-led Southern states including Texas and Florida, where substantial vaccine resistance remains.

But Thursday's move is not just about federal workers.

WATCH | U.S. health-care workers face mandatory vaccinations: 

New York City will soon impose a mandatory order for health-care workers to be vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis. It comes as U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce Thursday all federal workers need to be vaccinated or wear masks and be tested regularly. 2:10

The administration hopes it will nudge private companies to push their workers harder to get vaccines that, while widely recognized as safe and effective, have yet to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Some of the nation's biggest corporations have moved to require vaccinations for their workers. Tech giants Facebook and Google announced this week their employees would have to show proof they've been fully vaccinated before returning to work.

Delta and United airlines are requiring new employees to show proof of vaccination. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are requiring workers to disclose their vaccination status though not requiring them to be vaccinated.

A sign informing people of a store's COVID-19 requirements is seen in New York City on Thursday. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

But fewer than 10 per cent of employers have said they intend to require all employees to be vaccinated, based on periodic surveys by the research firm Gartner.

The Biden administration hopes its federal-worker guidance will help change that, by providing a model for state and local governments and private businesses to follow as workers prepare to return to offices this fall.

But there is already opposition, with state lawmakers across the U.S. having introduced more than 100 bills aimed at prohibiting employers from requiring vaccination as a condition of employment, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. At least six states have approved such bills.

What's happening in Canada People wearing face masks are seen in Kelowna, B.C., on Thursday. The province reinstated a face mask mandate and declared a COVID-19 outbreak in the Central Okanagan . (Winston Szeto/CBC)

Re-instated mask mandate takes effect in B.C.'s Central Okanagan region.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​All restrictions in N.B. will be lifted Friday at 11:59 p.m. local time.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Yukon COVID-19 wave reaches milestone: No new cases reported for 24 hours.

What's happening around the world

As of Thursday, more than 196 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 4.1 million deaths had been reported.

In Asia, Japanese officials have sounded the alarm as Tokyo reported record-breaking coronavirus cases for the third straight day with the Olympics well underway.

WATCH | Tokyo officials plead with public to stay home: 

Despite a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in Tokyo, some people are ignoring public health advice amid the Olympic excitement and fatigue from pandemic measures. 2:08

In Europe, Spain's prime minister on Thursday announced that existing measures to protect the most vulnerable from the pandemic's economic fallout will be prolonged until the end of October.

In Africa, the director of the region's World Health Organization chapter says the continent of 1.3 billion people is entering an "encouraging phase after a bleak June" as supplies of COVID-19 vaccines increase. 

In the Americas, Brazil plans to cancel a contract signed in March for 10 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said on Thursday as the South American nation struggles with one of the worst outbreaks in the world.

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