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Concerns about the current surging infection rate in the United States due to the coronavirus Delta variant is spurring more calls for the unvaccinated to get jabs and has officials reconsidering the path to post-pandemic normalcy.
As the US has seen relaxed or eliminated mask mandates and efforts to reopen businesses and travel, the current spike in COVID cases is now resulting in more caution and, in some cases, more restrictions.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday said it would require its doctors and other medical staff to get COVID-19 vaccines, becoming the first federal agency to impose such a mandate.
“It’s the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country,” McDonough said in a press release.
Also Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced California, the nation’s most populous state, beginning next month will require state employees and all health care workers to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or get tested weekly.
“The announcement here today is broad, it’s significant, believe we may be the first state at scale to not only require it for all state employees but to engage in public-private partnership with our healthcare facilities in the state,” Newsom said.
Earlier Monday, a group of more than 50 healthcare organisations, including the American Medical Association and American Nurses Association, called for mandated vaccinations for healthcare workers.
“Due to the recent COVID-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” the groups said in a statement.
“This is the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all health care workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first and take all steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being.”
Their call for mandated jabs comes after a report last week by ProPublica that only 59 percent of nursing home and long-term healthcare facility workers are vaccinated.
Blaming the unvaccinated
“We’re going in the wrong direction,” the US’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said Sunday about the recent surge in cases and pointed his finger squarely at those who have yet to receive a vaccine.
“If you look at the inflexion of the curve of new infections … it is among the unvaccinated and since we have 50 percent of the country is not fully vaccinated, that’s a problem,” he added.
Coronavirus vaccines are widely available across the US, and just less than 60 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated, with 68.8 percent of adults having received at least one dose, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
The sharpest increases in COVID-19 infections are in places with lower vaccination rates. Florida, Texas and Missouri account for 40 percent of all new cases nationwide, with about one in five of all new cases occurring in Florida, White House adviser Jeffrey Zients said last week.- ALJAZEERA
Online Reporter