Ǧͳͻ vaccine re“uirement ™ill be scrapped

WASHINGTON - America will scrap vaccine mandates for federal employees and international travelers next week - finally bringing the US in-line with the rest of the world.

The Biden Administration announced Monday that these mandates will go by the wayside starting May 11, when the COVID-19-related public health emergency ends.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also announced that the requirements will be scrapped for remaining educators and at federally funded health systems still subject to conditions.

Head Start educators, and employees of healthcare facilities that receive federal funding and certain non-citizens at the land border. ‘‘We are in a different phase of our response to COVID-19 than we were when many of these requirements were put into place,’ ‘the Biden admin said in a statement.

‘‘These measures are no longer necessary,’’it continued. The administration had previously laid out plans to wind back the final COVID-19 measures in place.

The pandemic national emergency on April 11, with plans to end the public health declaration next week.

While the decision last month scaled back many pandemic-related policies, it was unclear whether these vaccine orders would also be included.

The measures finally bring the US inline with the rest of the world.

Very few countries - such as Angola and Indonesia - still require visitors to have received a COVID-19 vaccine to gain entry. The White House cited the statistics showing that since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have dropped by 95 per cent, and hospitalisations are down nearly 91 per cent.

Recent studies have shown the vaccines, while able to prevent hospitalisation and death, are not as effective against transmission of the virus.

A 2022 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that after 25 weeks, the protection the Pfizer vaccine gave to recipients against Omicron infection fell to just nine per cent.