People stand outside Starbucks on the Upper West Side amid the coronavirus pandemic on March 23, 2021 in New York City.
Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images
Starbucks will require all of its US workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 or test weekly for the virus, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
“The vaccine is the best option we have, by far, when it comes to staying safe and slowing the spread of Covid-19,” Starbucks North America President John Culver said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg to employees on December 27.
Staff in cafes, plants, distribution centers, and offices all must reveal their vaccination status by January 10, and the new mandate will begin on February 9, the Bloomberg report said, citing the memo.
Employees who choose to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 will have to pay for their own tests, the report said.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The coffee company’s new rules come after the Biden Administration in November announced that federal government employees or those working for large companies must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing at the start of 2022.
Since the announcement from the White House, there has been a slew of lawsuits filed against the administration from states that opposed the mandates.
The country is averaging over 280,000 COVID-19 cases a day, according to CDC data from last week, as it faces a surge in cases led by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
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