New COVID-19 vaccine requirements for government employees are being unveiled across the US as the country attempts to jump-start its slowing immunization rate.
The vaccine mandates come amid what federal health officials have called a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Those in the US who have not received a vaccine now account for around 99.5 percent of the country’s coronavirus deaths and 97 percent of its hospitalizations, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With nearly 51 percent of the US population still not fully vaccinated, cities such as the Big Apple and San Francisco, as well as at least one state and federal agency, are rolling out new policies.