The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana just days ago temporarily blocked implantation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to institute mandatory vaccination programs or have unvaccinated employees submit to weekly testing. Employers should still prepare for the vaccine mandates.

First previewed by President Joe Biden in September, OSHA’s ETS is part of a concerted effort by the current administration to actively encourage the reopening of workspaces and curb COVID-19 outbreaks by requiring mandatory vaccination of about 84 million workers, many of whom may have already been vaccinated voluntarily, by Jan. 4, 2022. As part of OSHA’s announced ETS, private employers are required to review requests for accommodation by unvaccinated employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the religious exemption provisions in Title VII.