NEW YORK, Nov 23 (NNN-XINHUA) – While COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide in the United States, debates over the Joe Biden administration’s vaccination mandate continue, painting a bleak picture, as the Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week.
The seven-day average of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States stood at 92,580 nationwide, on Saturday, up by 29 percent, compared with that of 14 days ago. As of Sunday, the country reported a total of 47,701,533 COVID-19 cases, while the national tally of deaths topped 770,800, figures from the Johns Hopkins University showed.
This puts the pandemic-long total at more than twice the 385,343 COVID-19 deaths recorded last year, according to the most recent death certificate data, from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
U.S. small-business owners face challenges, preparing for the vaccination mandate, with some saying, efforts to comply are exacerbating hiring problems and stoking tensions among workers, reported The Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
The vaccine mandate drew mixed reactions from executives, with some saying they welcomed the federal rules because they took the burden off companies to impose their own. Others said, the mandate thrusts employers into a contentious issue, in which any stance risks inflaming staffing challenges.
Under the new rules, employers with 100 or more workers must ensure employees get fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19, at least weekly and wear a mask at work. Implementation of the rules was temporarily blocked by a federal appeals court, in response to legal challenges.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also agreed not to begin enforcement, pending a court decision, about the mandate slated to take full effect Jan 4, but maintained that, it has the authority to vaccinate workers, in an effort to stop the spread of the COVID-19.
U.S. President, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci said, on Thursday night, on MSNBC that, all those 18 years old and older should get a booster shot for added protection.
Fauci believed “for some time now” that, boosters are effective and should be recommended for all adults in the United States, who received their vaccine at least six months ago.
As of Sunday morning, 229,837,421 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, making up 69.2 percent of the entire U.S. population; fully vaccinated people stood at 196,128,496, accounting for 59.1 percent of the total.
A total of 34,503,462 people, or 17.6 percent of the fully vaccinated group, have received booster shots, according to the CDC data.
