Tyson Foods mandates a military program for meatpackers to dispensate vaccines to workers.
- Tyson Foods Inc said on Tuesday it was mandating COVID - 19 vaccinations for its entire workforce, joining a growing list of major U.S. companies that face renewed pandemic restrictions due to the rapidly spreading Delta variant.
Surging COVID cases and new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions for Disease Control and Prevention that requires fully-vaccinated individuals to wear masks has led many companies to rethink their plans.
Many of the largest corporations have taken action following the CDC's guidance, including mask mandates from McDonald's Corp., Apple Inc and vaccination requirements by Walmart and Walt Disney.
U.S. officials said Monday that COVID - 19 cases, along with hospitalizations and deaths from the virus, had increased in the last week, even as vaccination rates have seen a pick up amid concern over the highly contagious Delta variant.
The CDC said there were about 72,000 new COVID cases per day in the United States as of Saturday, a 44% increase over the previous week and higher than the peak seen in the summer of 2020.
Tyson said on Tuesday that employees at other U.S. offices vaccinated by 1 Oct. should be fully vaccinated and employees in other locations have until November. It added that nearly half the U.S. workforce was vaccinated.
Labor unions and meat companies have been pushing states to increase the pace of vaccine rollout in the food sector to protect workers and avoid supply-chain disruptions from COVID - 19 outbreaks, such as closings of slaughterhouses last year.