Biden: Unvaccinated Federal Workers to Face Testing, Masking
Voice of America
WHITE HOUSE - With the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 rapidly spreading across the country, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced civilian federal government employees must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing and wear masks.
“Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” the president said Thursday in a speech from the White House East Room. “Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask, no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they’ve acquired COVID, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work.” The federal government employs more than 4 million Americans, including over 2 million in the federal civilian workforce, a White House statement said. The same standards will apply to federal contractors, Biden added.FILE - A tablet displays the logo of Facebook parent Meta Platforms. Meta and other companies are churning out new AI language models and hoping to convince customers they've got the smartest, handiest or most efficient chatbots. FILE - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicks off the tech giant's Connect developer conference, Sept. 27, 2023, in Menlo Park, Calif. Meta on April 18, 2024, unveiled a new set of artificial intelligence systems.
Chairs are set for missing members of the Bibas family who are held hostage in Gaza at a Passover Seder table April 11, 2024, at Israel's Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of all residents were killed or captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Shlomi Berger sits in his daughter's bedroom in Holon, Israel, April 17, 2024. Osnat Peri, right, whose husband, Haim, is in Hamas captivity, takes part in a Passover Seder commemoration with relatives of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, at the communal dining room at Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel, April 11, 2024.
FILE - A line of Holstein dairy cows feed through a fence at a dairy farm in Idaho on March 11, 2009. Since March 2024, a strain of avian influenza has been found in dairy cow herds in eight U.S. states. FILE - Researchers collect samples of wildlife, where the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected, at Chilean Antarctic Territory, Antarctica, in this handout photo obtained March 13, 2024. (Instituto Antartico Chileno/Handout via Reuters)
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, center, prepares for a sentencing hearing in state district court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 15, 2024. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool) FILE - A musician plays a violin behind a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Oct. 23, 2021.
Performers take part in the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Actress Mary Mina, playing a priestess, hands an olive branch to the first torch bearer, Greek olympic gold medalist Stefanos Douskos, during the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Actress Mary Mina, playing a priestess, lights the flame during the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Performers take part in the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024.