US mulls expanding private employer vaccine mandate

Washington, Nov 9 The US government is reportedly considering whether to implement a Covid-19 vaccine mandate on employers of all sizes, after it announced such an order on November 4 for businesses with a workforce of 100 or more.

According to a summary released on Monday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a large regulatory agency of the Department of Labour, "businesses with under 100 employees are being eyed as well", "though it is 'less confident' such a mandate will work" for small entities, Xinhua news agency reported.

"OSHA is confident that employers with 100 or more employees have the administrative capacity to implement the standard's requirements promptly, but is less confident that smaller employers can do so without undue disruption," said the summary.

"OSHA needs additional time to assess the capacity of smaller employers, and is seeking comment to help the agency make that determination."

On November 6, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled to temporarily halt the mandate by President Joe Biden's administration that required employees of large companies to get vaccinated or undergo frequent testing.

The order reasoned that "there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate" and suspended the mandate "pending further action by this court".

The mandate requires employees of companies with a workforce of 100 or more fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022.

Unvaccinated staffers must submit weekly negative Covid-19 tests to enter the workplace after the deadline, and have to wear masks indoors starting from December 5.

Roughly 84 million workers, or about two-thirds of the private-sector force, are expected to be impacted by the rule, and employers have until January 4 to implement the policy.

On Sunday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told ABC News that the government mandate is "appropriate and necessary", and suggested it might be widened, assuming it survives multiple court challenges.

"Certainly nothing is off the table at this moment," Murthy said when asked whether it would get expanded to smaller firms.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) latest update, 223,629,671 people have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, making up 67.4 per cent of the whole US population; while fully vaccinated people stood at 193,832,584, accounting for 58.4 per cent of the total.

A total of 24,084,107 people, or 12.4 per cent of the fully vaccinated group, have received booster shots.

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