(Bloomberg Law). — OSHA issued a Federal Rule mandating Covid-19 vaccines and at least weekly testing of workers in U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees.

The OSHA rules are a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s push to use employer mandates to drive up vaccination totals nationally. Biden has increased the federal worker’s and contractor’s vaccination requirements. These changes will go into effect in the coming weeks. While less demanding, OSHA’s rules extend the push into private sector.

Biden—elected in part on a pledge to quell the pandemic—views vaccination as the fastest path to reopening society and the economy, including employer mandates, booster shots and vaccines for kids aged 5 to 11 that began this week. Around 80% of Americans have had at least one vaccine.

The requirement made public by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday will take effect Friday when it’s published in the Federal Register. The first compliance deadline for employers—providing time off for workers to get inoculated and ensuring those who aren’t vaccinated are wearing masks—is Dec. 5. Worker must have been fully vaccinated before Jan. 4, or they will be subject to testing.

Several Republican states’ attorneys general have vowed to sue in an effort to block the initiative. On Thursday, conservative groups such as the Job Creators Network or The Daily Wire announced that they would challenge the rule.

Read more: What’s in the Biden Administration’s Covid Shot-or-Test Rule

This safety agency initiative was made in tandem with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services vaccine requirement that covers health-care workers working at 76,000 hospitals participating in its program. It will also be enforced starting Jan.

The emergency temporary standard, which OSHA justified by citing the “grave danger” posed by the lingering Coronavirus pandemic, requires covered employers to develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy or a policy requiring employees to choose either to get vaccinated or to undergo regular Covid-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.

According to officials, ETS mandates that employers provide workers with paid time off so they can get immunized. It also requires them to give sick leave in order to help their employees recover from side effects.

Employers not enforcing OSHA’s newest rule could be cited by the agency and face a fine of up to $13,653 for each serious violation. An employer who willfully violates the OSHA mandate could face a $136,532 fine.

States affected

Implementation of the standard in any of the 22 states with their own worker safety agencies for private industry—such as California, Arizona, Michigan, and South Carolina—could be delayed as governments decide whether to accept the standard as written, modify it, or draft an equivalent or more protective rule. According to officials, each state will have 30 days for the implementation of the standard.

Those 22 states and six more states with safety agencies covering only government employees—such as New York, New Jersey, and Illinois—also will be required to apply the standard to local and state government workers.

Public employees in states that don’t have their own safety agency—including Texas, Florida, and Ohio—won’t be covered by the federal mandate, which otherwise applies to just private employers.

VIDEO : President Biden’s vaccine mandate rule for companies, the likely legal challenges and what to expect next.

Facing resistance

The OSHA/CMS mandates are simultaneous, and were issued 10 months after Covid-19’s first vaccines went into effect. These mandates follow mandates previously issued for federal employees and health care workers. The administration stated that two-thirds (or more) of U.S. workers would now be covered by one or both of these vaccination requirements.

On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden directed the federal workplace safety agency (Federal Workplace Safety Agency) to establish an emergency temporary standard. He was confronted by resistance from inoculation in particular in Southern states, as well as being urged on by opposition politicians. OSHA acted alone and did not meet with workers or employers to accomplish this.

Instead, the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs scheduled more than 100 meetings with companies, business groups, unions, and others. During those sessions, employers often asked for enforcement of the standard to be delayed until after the holiday shopping season to give employers adequate time to have compliance programs in place to allow workers up to six week to be considered “fully vaccinated.”

OSHA took OSHA five months and the Biden Administration five months to release the emergency temporary standard that applies to health-care facilities in which Covid-19 patients are treated. The standard was adopted June 21.

OSHA standards are valid for six months, after which they need to be replaced with a permanent regulation.