The Biden administration will end some federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements on May 11, the White House announced in a statement. The mandates include vaccine requirements for federal workers, federal contractors, and foreign air travelers to the US, Ednews informs via BBC.
"While I believe that these vaccine mandates had a tremendous beneficial impact, we are now at a point where we think that it makes a lot of sense to pull these requirements down," White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said about the move.
Jha also dismissed any potential worries that ending the international traveler vaccination requirement would increase the risk of a new variant from overseas entering the country. He said the US was already protected by a traveler genomic surveillance program, which tests for different virus strains in aircraft wastewater, adding that Washington thinks they will be "much more able to identify if a new variant shows up in the United States and respond effectively."
