May 9 (UPI) — The White House on Tuesday announced it is ending its COVID-19 vaccination requirements for federal workers and air travel starting Friday.
The Biden administration made the announcement in an executive order revoking two previous executive orders requiring vaccinations for federal employees.
“Considering this progress and based on the latest guidance from our public health experts, we no longer need a government-wide vaccination requirement for federal employees or federally specified safety protocols for federal contractors,” the White House said.
“Vaccination remains an important tool to protect individuals from serious illness, but we are now able to move beyond these federal requirements.”
The White House announced a revoking of COVID-19 vaccination requirements for air travel, also effective on Friday.
“Today, we are in a different phase of the response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic than we were in October 2021,” the White House said.
President Joe Biden said in the proclamation that the administration has “successfully marshaled a whole-of-government response” that has helped mitigate COVID-19 to the point where the vaccination requirements are no longer needed.
“Our public health experts have issued guidance that allows all travelers to understand mitigation measures to protect themselves and those around them,” Biden said. “Our healthcare system and public health resources throughout the country are now better able to respond to any potential surge of COVID-19 cases without significantly affecting access resources or care.”
He said that COVID-19 cases and deaths are also at global lows since the start of the pandemic.
“As we continue to monitor the evolving state of COVID-19 and the emergence of virus variants, we have the tools to detect and respond to the potential emergence of a variant of high consequence,” the president said.
“Considering the progress that we have made, and based on the latest guidance from our public health experts, I have determined that we no longer need the international air travel restrictions that I imposed in October 2021.”
