The Biden administration will move to require that nursing home staff members are vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Biden will announce the step Wednesday afternoon in a White House address as the administration continues to look for ways to use mandates to encourage vaccine holdouts to get shots. A senior administration official confirmed the announcement, first reported by CNN, Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to preview the news before Biden’s remarks.

The new mandate, in the form of a forthcoming regulation to be issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, could take effect as soon as next month.

Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers are not vaccinated, according to federal data, despite those facilities bearing the brunt of the early COVID-19 outbreak.

Featured

Six soldiers were honored, each receiving Meritorious Service Medals, Thursday for heroic actions responding to the shooting at Fort Stewart. “One of the things I can say unequivocally is that the fast action of these soldiers — under stress and under trauma and under fire — absolutely saved lives from being lost,” U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told reporters as the six soldiers stood near him Thursday. “They are everything that is good about this nation.” (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC