93% Of TSA Employees Are Vaccinated Ahead Of Thanksgiving Travel Weekend
The overwhelming majority of TSA employees have gotten pictures of their arms in compliance with the federal vaccine mandate. (Photograph by David McNew)
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If you run into any lengthy traces on the airport over Thanksgiving weekend, don’t blame it on the federal vaccine mandate. The Transportation Safety Administration is reporting that the overwhelming majority of its workers at the moment are absolutely vaccinated.
“Ninety-three p.c of the TSA workforce has complied with the vaccination mandate,” mentioned R. Carter Langston, a TSA spokesperson, in an e mail.
Yesterday, November 22, was the deadline by which all federal workers should both be vaccinated towards Covid-19 or undergo frequent coronavirus testing, per President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
“For the reason that President introduced the vaccination requirement for federal workers in September, TSA has continued to make important progress making certain compliance throughout the company—and implementation of the requirement is not going to lead to any disruptions to important companies that the American individuals depend upon,” mentioned Langston. “The mandate is not going to have any influence on vacation journey.”
This newest report clears up a weeks-long thriller. The TSA had not provided an replace on the company’s compliance since October 13. At the moment, TSA Administrator David Pekoske informed CNN that “about 60% of our workforce has been vaccinated, that that quantity must go fairly a bit larger over the following few weeks.”
Since then, and till yesterday, the TSA was not saying how a lot the compliance needle had moved, solely that the company can be prepared for the vacation quantity and that the worker vaccine mandate wouldn’t influence journey this weekend.
Thanksgiving weekend is among the many busiest journey intervals of your entire yr. The AAA expects 4.2 million People to fly over Thanksgiving, down 11% from pre-pandemic ranges however practically double the air passenger quantity from final yr.
There are at the moment 275 TSA workers with lively COVID-19 infections, according to the agency’s website. For the reason that starting of the pandemic, TSA has cumulatively had 11,199 federal workers check optimistic for Covid-19. As well as, 33 TSA workers and two screening contractors have died after contracting the virus.
