(Photo : ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Carol Salas waits to receive a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine beside a map of the US at a L.A. Care Health Plan vaccination clinic at Los Angeles Mission College in the Sylmar neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, January 19, 2022. - While cases of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise in California, officials are seeing early signs that the Omicron surge is slowing.
Non-US essential workers, such as nurses, truck drivers, and researchers, who are crossing land borders are now required by the United States government to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as infections continue to surge.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Thursday after the country had recorded more than 748,000 new infections a day before.
Essential Workers Required To Be Fully Vaccinated
In October, the Biden administration announced that starting November 8, it would allow non-essential foreign visitors from Canada and Mexico to travel into the US across land borders if they have received anti-COVID-19 shots.
The Department of Homeland Security said those requirements would be extended to essential workers who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, as per Reuters.
According to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the department will require "non-U.S. individuals entering the United States via land ports of entry or ferry terminals along our Northern and Southern borders be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and prepared to show related proof of vaccination."
However, people crossing land borders are not required to show test results indicating that they are negative from COVID-19, unlike those who are traveling by air.
Canada has imposed a vaccine mandate for US truck drivers crossing the Canadian border that started on January 15.
Truckers are considered essential workers since more than two-thirds of the C$650 billion ($521 billion) in products exchanged yearly between Canada, and the United States are transported by road. Truck drivers were allowed to travel even while the Canadian border was closed for 20 months in an effort to manage the virus outbreak.
On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported the mandate as standing in line with US policies since the two countries are top trading partners.
Hospitalization Numbers Surge
The DHS announcement came after the pandemic high number of more than 160,000 COVID-19 infected Americans are presently confined in hospitals based on federal records. Though it is unclear how many people were admitted due to COVID-19 and how many later tested positive for the virus after being admitted for other health conditions.
The federal data also indicate that an average of 760,000 get infected with COVID-19 per day, as per ABC.
Despite the high infection numbers in the country, the COVID-19 surge, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant, is going down in some states.
Daily infections in New York have fallen by 33% in the last week, while new cases in New Jersey have declined by 43.7 percent.
Currently, Wisconsin has the highest rate of new cases per capita in the US, followed by Rhode Island, Utah, and South Carolina.
Free Masks for the Public
To boost the protection of Americans against COVID-19, the Biden administration will be giving away 400 million highly protective masks to the public. People can avail high-quality N95 masks at pharmacies and community health centers for free starting next week, as per CNBC.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that N95 masks are more effective than cloth and surgical masks in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky advised that wearing any mask is better than no mask.
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