10 November,2021 08:25 AM IST | Washington | Agencies
Protesters opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and vaccine passports by the government rally at City Hall in New York City. Pic/AFP
The White House has urged private companies to implement rules for employees to receive Coronavirus vaccines, two days after a federal court temporarily stayed the administration's mandate requiring businesses to inoculate their workforce.
"We think people should not wait," White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during the daily press briefing. "We say, do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe. It is important and critical to do and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness. We're trying to get past this pandemic, and we know the way to do that is to get people vaccinated," Xinhua news agency quoted Jean-Pierre as further saying. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on November 6 to temporarily halt the mandate, citing "grave statutory and constitutional issues" with it.
People wait in line to clear customs and enter the US at the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry in downtown El Paso, Texas, on November 8. Pic/AFP
The ruling came as several Republican Attorneys General of Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah, as well as several private companies, filed petitions on November 5 challenging the mandate. More than two dozen state Attorneys General as well as other organisations are challenging the rule in court. The mandate was formally known as an emergency temporary standard and was developed by the Labour Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). According to the requirements, employees of companies with a workforce of 100 or more must be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022.
Some border town Mayors on both sides of the Canada-US border held a virtual news conference to urge Ottawa to cancel the Covid-19 test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers. The conference was held on Monday as the US reopened its land border with Canada to fully vaccinated recreational travellers after 19 months of closure, reports Xinhua news agency.
Sri Lankan Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that legal advice had been sought if Covid-19 vaccine cards could be made mandatory for people to visit public places across the island nation. Rambukwella said the attorney general had informed him that legal procedures could be taken against those who had not been vaccinated with both doses if they visit the public places in the future.
Italy's Covid-19 situation is stable under the current rules, a health official said. Speaking to local media, Walter Ricciardi, an advisor to Italy's health minister, described the framework of anti-virus rules in place as sufficient to shield the country from a peak.
Pakistan's Coronavirus positivity rate has dropped below one per cent for the first time since March 2000, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The country recorded 400 new cases in the last 24 hours, registering a positivity rate of 0.94 per cent, the ministry said. It is for the first time that the positivity rate has dropped below 1% , it said.
31,78,65
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
25,05,63,666
Total no. of cases worldwide
50,60,292
Total no. of deaths worldwide
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