Set-Aside Alert exclusive research:

Biden announces new vaccine, mask rules for federal vendors

      President Joe Biden on July 29 announced that on-site federal employees and contractors must be vaccinated for COVID-19 or be required to test regularly, wear masks indoors and socially distance to reduce spread of the virus.

      The highly infectious Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has become dominant in the U.S. in recent weeks, causing authorities to tighten rules to reduce contagion and to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients. Hospitals in several states already are reporting crisis conditions and staff shortages.

      According to a White House Fact Sheet, fully vaccinated on-site contractors will have to:

• Attest to their vaccination status; and
• Wear a mask indoors in localities with high or substantial transmission rates.

      On-site contractors who are not fully vaccinated or are unwilling to attest to their vaccination status must:

• Submit to weekly or bi-weekly COVID-19 tests;
• Wear masks indoors in all localities;
• Physically distance from other workers and visitors;
• Be subject to government-wide restrictions on official travel.

     The new rules raise some questions, attorneys told Bloomberg Law. They said it will be challenging to classify some contractors as on-site or off-site, especially for those who make occasional visits on-site. There also are questions about timing of the implementations, and about who will perform tests and keep test records.

      To deal with such challenges, Biden is encouraging employers to provide incentives to their entire workforce to be vaccinated.

      Attorneys from PilieroMazza PLLC wrote in a recent client alert that employers implementing a COVID-19 vaccination policy should address these issues:

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