Employers will be given more time to comply with a federal requirement that workers get vaccinated for COVID-19 or be regularly tested, the U.S. Department of Labor announced after a federal appeals court allowed the rule to go forward. Workers who are not fully vaccinated won’t have to be regularly tested until Feb. 9, more than a month after the original Jan. 4 deadline. The department said it is exercising enforcement discretion to “account for any uncertainty” caused by the legal challenges that had blocked the rule. Businesses with at least 100 employers were to have determined the vaccination status of workers – and require unvaccinated workers to wear masks – by Dec. 6. The Labor Department said it won’t issue any penalties before Jan. 10, and will take no action on the testing rules until Feb. 9, as long as an employer “is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance.” #coronaviruspandemic #omicronvariant