United States President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the number of unvaccinated residents in the country remained to be "unreasonably high" but argued that his administration's vaccine mandates were working in urging more people to get inoculated.
During the Democratic president's remarks from the White House, Biden praised his administration's efforts and "progress" in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The president said that across the nation, daily cases were down 47% and hospitalizations were down 38% over the last six weeks.
Biden Defends Effectivity of Vaccine Mandates
The Democrat also revealed that in the last two weeks, the majority of the regions in the United States have experienced an improvement in their COVID numbers. He said that case rates were going down in 39 states and hospital rates were declining in 38 states.
However, Biden said that despite his administration's success in implementing the vaccine mandates, the number of unvaccinated Americans remained "unreasonably high." He said that now was the time to keep pushing through at a time when the United States was "in a very critical period" to turn the corner on the pandemic, Fox News reported.
The situation comes as Biden also announced that the vaccine mandate for the country's private sector will take effect "soon." The president said the implementation would be used to address the problem of people not willing to be vaccinated.
However, Biden did not take questions from reporters for a second straight day after a major address of the nation's circumstances. The Democratic president said the government had to find a way to vaccine the 66 million unvaccinated Americans. Biden noted that the Labor Department will soon issue an emergency rule that would affect companies that had at least 100 workers.
Last month, Biden announced that many federal workers would be required to get inoculated and companies who had at least 100 employees would be required to issue mandatory shots or regular testing. A draft regulation was sent to the White House budget office by the Labor Department this week, the New York Post reported.
Opposition From Other Lawmakers
Amid the issue, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened a multimillion-dollar battle against the country's vaccine mandates. On Thursday, the Republican lawmaker took the fight against Biden's administration.
DeSantis said Florida would challenge vaccine mandates in place in federal court and through legislation. The situation after Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott banned vaccine mandates in his state earlier this week.
During a news conference in Fort Myers, DeSantis said that people should not allow Biden to come in and "effectively" take away people's jobs. He argued that residents have been working hard throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican governor said he was offended that a police officer could lose his job and not be able to protect residents due to a vaccine mandate.
The Florida lawmaker has repeatedly challenged and opposed Biden's coronavirus response plans, including vaccine passports, mask mandates, and lockdowns. "I just think it's fundamentally wrong to be taking people's jobs away, particularly given the situations that we see ourselves facing with the economy," said the official, Politico reported.
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