Private companies with over 100 employees who refuse to mandate vaccines and strict testing could face $14,000 fines

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an aggressive new plan to get 100 million employees across the federal government and private sector vaccinated against COVID as the case rate continues to rise due to the Delta variant.

According to the Daily Mail, To reach his goal, Biden will use the sweeping power of the federal government, ordering companies to vaccinate workers or face fines of up to thousands of dollars. If the administration hits its 100 million mark that means two-thirds of the country’s workforce would be vaccinated.

The Labor Department issued an emergency, temporary order to require all businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure every worker is either fully vaccinated or gets tested at least once a week. The order covers over 80 million employees and it will require employers with 100 or more employees to give employees paid time off to get vaccinated.

Any business that violates the new rule will face substantial fines, up to $14,000. He also required all workers in healthcare settings that receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement to get vaccinated, which will apply to 17 million healthcare workers.

That is in addition to his executive order requiring all federal workers and contractors to get vaccinated. A senior administration official described it as an ‘aggressive,

comprehensive’ plan to fight COVID as part of their mission to ‘vaccinate the unvaccinated.’ The official estimated nearly 80 million Americans are eligible to receive a shot but have not. Additionally, the roughly 300,000 educators in headstart programs will be required to be vaccinated. READ MORE

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper published in London. Founded in 1896, it is the United Kingdom’s second-biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.