US President Joe Biden unveiled a broad plan to force millions of unvaccinated Americans to get shots against the coronavirus, but illegal immigrants crossing the border are not required to obtain the vaccine, Fox News reported.
According to the president, as well as companies with 100 or more workers, 17 million healthcare employees who work in facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid will be required to get a vaccine. Biden’s new COVID-19 strategy also includes compulsory vaccines for federal government employees and contractors and a call for state governors to mandate vaccines for teachers and to expand testing accessibility.
Despite summer reports that around 30 percent of immigrants confined in federal detention facilities refuse to be vaccinated – and they have the right to refuse – Biden has stopped short of making the vaccine obligatory for illegal immigrants seeking to enter the US via its southern border.
According to the latest Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] data on COVID-19 cases in detention centers for illegal aliens, there have been more than 27,000 COVID-19 instances and nine deaths among inmates as of Thursday.
According to Fox News, before being released by US Border Patrol, more than 18 percent of migrant families who recently crossed the border tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Unaccompanied minors reportedly accounted for 20 percent of those who tested positive for the virus.
The Biden administration’s plan also focuses on increasing testing availability, with initiatives such as using the Defense Production Act to speed up the production of rapid COVID-19 tests and the procurement of roughly $2 billion in rapid point-of-care and over-the-counter at-home tests.
The president also emphasized that because the Delta strain, which is the most common coronavirus type in the US, is more infectious than other variants, the nationwide public health emergency declared on 31 January 2020, remains in force.
Source: Agencies
