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Court halts vaccine mandate for federal contractors

The Biden administration’s mandate for federal contractors’ employees to be vaccinated will be halted nationwide amid a slew of challenges from states that say the president overstepped his authority in requiring the Covid-19 shots, Bloomberg Law reported [1].

A US district court judge for the Southern District of Georgia said in an order issued Tuesday the seven states that challenged the mandate set to take effect on Jan. 4 are likely to succeed in their lawsuits against the administration’s order.

The Biden administration mandate applies to roughly a quarter of the U.S. workforce and affects companies that do business with the federal government, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google and General Motors Co.

Read more from Bloomberg Law [1].

Separately, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has extended the comment period for its Covid-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard to Jan. 19, 2022.The 45-day extension is meant to allow stakeholders additional time to review the ETS and collect information and data necessary for comment. Comments can be submitted electronically via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal [2], identified by Docket No. OSHA-2021-0007.

OSHA’s ETS provides a framework for employers to comply with the vaccine mandate established by the Biden administration. The mandate is currently on hold [3] pending several legal challenges.

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