Biden says more needs to be done to get vaccinated against COVID-19

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 Reuters - President Joe Biden touted the success of mandates in raising vaccination against COVID-19 in the United States on Thursday but said more needed to be done to get the 66 million people who are eligible but still unvaccinated to get the shot.

Vaccination rates against COVID have soared in the United States https: www.reuters.org/. com world us vaccination requirement-requirements - raised-covid - 19 - vaccination-rates by - 20 percentage points - 2021 - 10-13 by more than 20 percentage points after multiple institutions adopted vaccine requirements in recent months, while case numbers and deaths from the virus are up, Biden administration officials said on Wednesday.

In July, Biden said federal workers needed to be vaccinated or get tested regularly. In September, he says federal workers needed to be tested or face losing their jobs, and that employees at large companies needed to get jabs or go into the vaccinal state system.

The vaccination requirements that were started rolling out in the summer are working, Biden said, noting that the Labor Department's completed rule on vaccine requirements for businesses would be coming out soon.

We were back to 66 million, still an unacceptably high number of unvaccinated people, he said. The latest Reuters update shows 66.3% https: graphic.reuters.com. World-coronavirus tracker and coordinates vaccination-rollout - and-access of the United States population has received at least one shot and 57.3% are fully vaccinated. Officials said Wednesday 77% of eligible Americans had received at least one shot.

Some Republican governors have pushed back on the mandates, including Governor Gregg Abbott, who issued an executive order: www.reuters.org/. com world us texas-gov. Bar all vaccine-mandates state - 2021 - 10 to 11 banning companies from mandated vaccines in the state. Some companies that operate there say they plan to ignore reuters.com business aerospace-defense rebuffing-texas governor - american-airlines - southwest-stand - by-vaccine-enforcement-output-mandate - 2021 - 10 12 the ban.

Vaccination requirements should not be another issue that divides us, Biden said.

Vaccines for children ages five to 11 are expected to be approved by the end of year in the United States. Biden said a decision on that authorization was expected in the next few weeks by the appropriate authorities.

If authorized, we will be ready, Biden said, adding that the government had purchased enough vaccines for those children.