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Which departments failed to meet Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees?

The Transportation Department and the Agency for International Development were the best-performing government agencies

Jade Bremner
Friday 26 November 2021 16:47 GMT
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The Transportation Department and the Agency for International Development were the best at hitting vaccination targets, while the Agriculture Department was least efficient in carrying out the mandate, according to data from The Office of Management and Budget.

“The Federal Government has achieved 96.5 per cent compliance,” stated the White House, “with 92 per cent of employees having received at least one Covid-19 vaccination dose” and branded it a successful implementation” of the programme.

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force said that workers were supposed to be completely vaccinated, and have two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or a single dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, leaving two weeks for the vaccine to become effective by 22 November.

On Tuesday, data was released that broke down exactly how each government department had performed.

The Transportation Department was one of the best-performing government departments, with a 99.6 per cent compliance rate and 90.6 per cent being fully vaccinated, followed by the Commerce Department with 99.4 per cent compliance and 93.9 per cent of workers fully vaccinated. The Small Business Administration also had a good compliance rate with 99.1 per cent, while the Agency for International Development came in at 99.6 per cent for compliance and is 97.8 per cent fully vaccinated.

The poorest performances in vaccine uptake were in the Agriculture Department with 86.1 per cent of employees vaccinated, the Social Security Administration with 87.7 per cent, and Veterans Affairs with 87.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department had 94.7 per cent of workers complying to take the jab by the deadline, the Social Security Administration had a 95 per cent turnout, while the Department of Homeland Security came in at 95.1 per cent.

The federal workforce is the largest workforce in the United States, with more than 3.5 million people working around the country and abroad for the government.

According to the White House, employees who have taken the first vaccination will be given “a reasonable amount of time to become fully vaccinated” before facing further consequences.

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