Across the country, officials are rolling out new requirements for mandatory vaccines for public employees — and the possibility of penalties if they fail to comply — as cases of the delta variant off the coronavirus rise sharply and vaccination rates stall.
The mayor of Los Angeles said Tuesday that city employees would be required to be vaccinated. Eric Garcetti noted that some employees had been asking for enhanced protection.
The announcement follows a succession of similar ones on Monday. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced all city workers would have to either get vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a similar policy for state employees and health care workers.
At the federal level, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said the department will require front-line health care workers to get vaccinated in the next two months. It will be the first government agency to set such a mandate.
And a range of medical groups representing millions of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers released a statement calling for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
