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Caldor Fire moves closer to Lake Tahoe resort town, prompts more evacuations

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Neal Waters/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.) — A California wildfire is inching closer to a resort town as fire conditions worsen in the region.

The Caldor Fire has now scorched more than 204,390 acres and is just 20% contained as it burns southeast of Lake Tahoe — raging nearer to the popular ski resort town of South Lake Tahoe.

It is now the 15th-largest fire in California history, destroying or damaging at least 772 structures, including nearly 550 homes, according to officials. Nearly 35,000 structures are still threatened.

Overnight, the fire remained “very active” due to poor humidity — down to 5% in some spots — according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But slow growth allowed firefighters to get more containment over the flames.

Those on the front lines are in an uphill battle now, with 35 to 40 mph wind gusts forecast through Wednesday night. Red flag warnings have been issued in California and Nevada.

Nearly 60,000 residents in Amador, El Dorado, Alpine and Douglas counties in California are under evacuation orders, which also expanded to Nevada on Wednesday as a result of the gusty winds and flames moving east.

The air quality in the Lake Tahoe area is nearly 40 times what the World Health Organization deems unhealthy due to the heavy plumes of smoke emitting from the Caldor Fire, according to IQ Air, a data tool that measures and ranks air quality in cities around the world.

There are currently 20 fires burning in California alone, with more than 1.88 million acres burned and 2,700 structures destroyed in the state.

The Dixie Fire — the second-largest and 14th most destructive fire in California history — is still burning in Lassen County in Northern California after it sparked on July 13. The fire has burned through 844,081acres, an area the size of Rhode Island, and is only 52% contained.

The Monument Fire in Trinity County, California — the 20th-largest in the state — has scorched through 174,706 acres and is 29% contained.

More than 15,000 fire personnel have been assigned to the front lines of the wildfire, while more than 59,000 people in California have been evacuated, according to Cal Fire.

About 6.3 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped from the air this year — a record set by the McClellan Air Tanker Base set for most fire retardant delivered in a single year, Cal Fire reported.

ABC News’ Max Golembo and Jenna Harrison, Kayna Whitworth and Haley Yamada contributed to this report.

2 Tennessee school districts temporarily close due to COVID

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Two Tennessee school districts have announced temporarily closures due to COVID-19 cases.

Sumner County School District announced Wednesday that students will be taking classes from Sept. 7 to 10 to “help mitigate the community spread of COVID-19 among students and staff.”

The district is using “inclement weather days” for the temporary closure. There won’t be any in-person or online instruction during that time period and school will resume on Sept. 13. Extracurricular activities will go on during the pause.

“We encourage everyone to practice safe, healthy measures during this break to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 within our community,” the district said in a statement.

Of the 2,444 cases reported from Aug. 17 to 30 in Sumner County, 868 were among school-age children between 5 and 18 years old, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Marion County School District also announced they will close from Thursday through Sept. 10 for “intensive cleaning and COVID-19 numbers.” All extra curricular activities will also be suspended through Sept. 13.

Marion County Schools has a mandatory mask mandate with a parental opt-out, Dr. Mark Griffith, director of Marion County Schools, said in a video message on Facebook to parents last week.

“Kids are wearing masks and doing what they’re supposed to do, we’re pleased to say that’s been a success so far,” he said.

He cited 116 COVID-19 cases among students across the county last week.

Neither school district has a public COVID-19 dashboard recording how many students and staff have tested positive for the virus.

The two new closures come one week after Wilson County Schools and Rutherford County Schools announced COVID-19 closures as well, according to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN.

COVID-19 cases among children have skyrocketed since May 2021, with 31,594 cases among 5- to 18-year-olds reported in the past 14 days, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Tennessee has seen cases and hospital admissions surge along with a sobering trend across the country. Hospitalizations have hit their highest point in more than seven months with nearly 104,000 patients across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pediatric COVID-19 admissions have also surged and school mask mandates have become the center of debates, especially as children under the age of 12 are still not eligible for the vaccine.

On average, nearly 340 children are now seeking hospital care for COVID-19 each day, according to the latest government data.

Government watchdog finds pandemic relief fraud potentially worth billions

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A new report from the federal watchdog overseeing the trillions in approved coronavirus relief funds says several relief programs potentially disbursed nearly $100 billion in fraudulent relief money.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, established as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed in March 2020, is responsible for overseeing a combined $5 trillion in pandemic relief funds authorized by Congress.

Working with inspectors general from several key federal agencies, the committee, in its report published Wednesday afternoon, identified fraud within programs championed by both parties, including those designed to aid small businesses and unemployed individuals.

“This is an unprecedented amount of money,” the report said. “And most of the funds were disbursed quickly. These factors put the money at a higher risk of fraud.”

The federal unemployment insurance program provides up to a $600 weekly in addition to the state unemployment payout. But the report found the program will disburse nearly $87 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments before its expiration this month.

Democrats championed the program, holding it up as a necessary safety net for people whose jobs were wiped out by the pandemic, but Republicans have long challenged it.

Though the program technically expires in September, it has already been rolled back in many Republican-controlled states. Republican leaders said the program incentivizes people to stay home by in some cases paying them more than low-wage jobs.

Businesses were also eligible for several types of loans under the massive coronavirus relief bills passed by Congress.

Potentially ineligible applicants for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which were given to small businesses that were established before the pandemic and could be used to pay normal business expenses, received $918 million in loan funds, the report says, “reducing the total amount of funds available for legitimate businesses.”

Both unemployment insurance benefits and loans issued to small businesses were plagued by self-certification, which allowed applicants to self-assess eligibility, sometimes without traditional review standards, the report says.

The report also detailed problems with the paycheck protection program, a small business COVID-19 relief measure that Republicans strongly advocated for. That program allowed small businesses to receive federal loans that would be forgiven if at least 60% of the borrowed funds were used to keep employees on the payroll, but the watchdog group found issues with representation and fraud.

Failure to require the checking of applicants against a list of those ineligible to receive federal loans led to 57,500 PPP loans worth $3.6 billion being issued to potentially ineligible recipients, according to the report.

And, despite language in the federal legislation instructing lenders to ensure small business loans were given to women, minorities and veterans, there is “no evidence that small businesses in underserved and vulnerable communities” received the loans.

The small business association, responsible for collecting demographic data on who was getting these new federal loans, did not collect demographic data on the loan applications and did not issue guidance requiring lenders to prioritize applicants from businesses in vulnerable communities, disadvantaging potential borrowers who may not have had existing relationships with larger lenders.

Since June, there’s been an effort to correct that issue through the creation of a new online tool and a revised application process.

Stimulus checks, several rounds of which went out to Americans in certain income brackets, were also not immune to fraud. The watchdog found that nearly 2.2 million checks worth nearly $3.5 billion were issued to deceased individuals. Of that, $72 million was voluntarily returned.

How a Texas clinic raced to provide abortion care before law went into effect

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — As the clock ticked toward midnight, staff at an abortion clinic in Texas rushed to provide service for their patients while they still legally could.

“Honestly, there was no rhythm. There was no rhyme. It was a pure push to get everyone that walked in that door yesterday completed before 11:59 p.m.,” Marva Sadler, Whole Woman’s Health director of clinical services, told ABC News.

Sadler was at the Whole Woman’s Health location in Fort Worth until midnight Tuesday assisting the push to serve patients before the most restrictive abortion law in decades went into effect.

While she said she felt proud to be able to provide care for the patients Tuesday night, when she returned to the office early Wednesday, that feeling “was immediately replaced by the thought that we were going to come in this morning and have to turn so many women away,” Sadler said.

Texas’ Senate Bill 8 went into effect at midnight after the Supreme Court did not respond to providers’ request for an emergency injunction in the midst of a legal challenge to the law. It still remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will react.

The law bans physicians from providing abortions “if the physician detects a fetal heartbeat,” including embryonic cardiac activity, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law prohibits the state from enforcing the ban, instead authorizing private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.

Whole Woman’s Health and other independent abortion providers, as well as Planned Parenthood clinics, are still providing abortion care in Texas in strict adherence to the new law. However, because the ban is so soon after a person may be able to detect a pregnancy — let alone book an appointment — “the tragedy is that we can only provide abortion for about 10% of the people that we could provide abortion for yesterday,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, said on a press call Wednesday.

Patients seeking abortions had heard about the upcoming law, Sadler said, and so in Fort Worth, “the schedule was full, because patients knew it was their last resort.”

“They made those appointments and were willing to come in and wait with us and to be patient with us, in almost a desperation to be seen,” Sadler said.

Clinic staff hustled to see those patients, completing 67 in-office procedures and upward of 50 follow-up appointments for medication abortions. On a typical day, the office sees more like 15 procedures and 20 medication abortion patients, according to Sadler.

The last procedure was at 11:56 p.m.

The clock wasn’t the only added pressure for clinic staff. Anti-abortion protesters were working until midnight, too, standing outside the clinic shining flashlights on the parking lot as patients entered and exited, Sadler said.

The protesters took extra efforts to slow down work Tuesday, Sadler and Hagstrom Miller claimed, calling both the police and fire department on the clinic.

Usually, the office has clinic escorts to shield patients from protesters as well as a security guard, but with the last-minute rush did not have those resources. Staff stood in place of the security guard into the night, Sadler said.

This is the third time Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas and was behind a landmark 2016 Supreme Court case that protected the right to abortion, has had to shutter operations due to laws in the last decade. The first was after the law that led to the Supreme Court case was enacted, and the second was last year when the state ordered abortion services to temporarily stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a place I think we find ourselves in here in Texas often,” Sadler said. “And you would think that we would get used to it, but, I don’t know that you can ever get used to people being so mean.”

She said she and the staff felt pressed to action because “they don’t sleep on the other side.”

“I’m tired, there is no doubt about that. I’m not sure how I’m getting my body to move, but I do know this: I do know that even though this is horrible and I don’t have the best answers to give my patients, I am still — my staff, my team, the wonderful abortion care workers in this state are still the best people to help these women navigate the hardest decisions of their lives,” Sadler said.

“And we can’t give up because Texas kind of beats us up, because a woman is still going to get pregnant and not want to be pregnant today,” she said. “So it hurts. It’s hard, it’s heavy, it seems impossible many times, but if not us, then who?”

Her voice choked with emotion, Sadler asked to share this message with patients: “We won’t give up, we have their back, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to support them in their time of need.”

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

Epstein victim seeks US Supreme Court review of prosecutors’ secret deal

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A woman who was allegedly sexually abused as a child by Jeffrey Epstein is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that, if allowed to stand, would end her years-long challenge to federal prosecutors’ once-secret deal with the deceased sex offender, which in 2008 allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges involving more than 30 underage victims.

“The nation’s highest court should review this ‘national disgrace’ and bring some measure of justice by overturning the decision,” wrote attorneys for Courtney Wild in a petition to the Supreme Court this week. “The importance of this case to crime victims — and to the public — cannot be overstated.”

Wild’s lawyers contend that the case presents a “now-or-never opportunity” for the Supreme Court to decide whether the government’s “covert practices” that concealed the Epstein deal from his victims violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

“Courtney’s rights were intentionally violated by our government, and we are now asking our United States Supreme Court to take this important case and finally bring the justice Courtney has been seeking, which will forever forbid the government from working in secret against victims, no matter how wealthy and powerful the criminal might be,” said Brad Edwards, one of Wild’s attorneys.

Wild, 33, sued the U.S. Justice Department in 2008, demanding information from federal prosecutors about their investigation of Epstein, a multimillionaire financier who allegedly sexually abused dozens of underage girls, including Wild, at his waterfront mansion on Florida’s Palm Beach Island.

Wild’s legal action forced the government to admit that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami had already reached a confidential deal with Epstein several months earlier, without informing the alleged victims. Over 12 years of litigation, Wild’s case ultimately exposed details of the secret negotiations between prosecutors and Epstein’s high-priced legal team that led to the controversial agreement.

“Without our case, probably no one would have seen the non-prosecution agreement, the secret agreement,” Edwards said. “Without that action, nobody would have known just how bad [Epstein] and his other co-conspirators were. No one would have ever understood the whole story.”

But the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April, in a 7-4 decision, that Wild’s case never should have been allowed to proceed. The majority of judges concluded that the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA), enacted by Congress in 2004, did not permit her to sue the Justice Department over Epstein’s so-called “sweetheart deal” in the absence of an existing criminal prosecution.

Federal prosecutors drafted a 53-page indictment of Epstein in 2007 but never filed it, opting to forgo federal prosecution in exchange for Epstein’s guilty pleas to two prostitution-related charges in Palm Beach County Court. Instead of facing a potential sentence between 14 and 17 years, Epstein served 13 months in the private wing of a county jail, much of that time on work release that allowed him to spend up to 16 hours a day at his West Palm Beach office, before he was released in 2009.

“Because the [federal] government never filed charges against Epstein, there was no pre-existing proceeding in which Ms. Wild could have moved for relief under the CVRA, and the Act does not sanction her stand-alone suit,” U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

Newsom acknowledged that the court’s decision left Wild and other alleged Epstein victims “largely empty handed” and without any remedy for the U.S. government’s alleged mistreatment of Epstein’s victims. Wild had argued for years that the Epstein deal, which also conferred limited immunity to any alleged co-conspirators, should be declared illegal and torn up.

“We have the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein’s hands, only to be left in the dark — and, so it seems, affirmatively misled — by government attorneys,” Newsom wrote in April. “Shameful all the way around. The whole thing makes me sick.”

In arguing for the Supreme Court to step in, Wild’s lawyers contend that the appeals court decision effectively frees the government “to dispense with victims’ rights and orchestrate clandestine deals without affording victims any rights under the CVRA.”

“Unless the decision from the 11th Circuit is overturned, the Justice Department will have a blueprint for keeping all sorts of negotiations secret — to the detriment of victims and the public understanding how cases are being resolved,” said Paul Cassell, another of Wild’s attorneys.

Wild, now a mother of two, was present in a Manhattan courtroom in July of 2019, when Epstein made his first appearance after being charged by federal authorities in New York with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. Epstein died a month later by apparent suicide while being held in New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. But Wild and her lawyers contend that her case against the federal government should not end with Epstein’s death.

“All we have ever wanted is to make sure that there are basic rights for victims like myself,” Wild told ABC News in a statement. “My final hope in this fight is with the United States Supreme Court, who I hope and pray will take my case and right the wrong that was done.”

A flight they’ll never forget: Afghan evacuation crews recount journey

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — For the thousands of Afghan evacuees bound for the U.S., their rescue flights to America were just one more step in a long journey, but for the airline crews who brought them here — the flights are the most memorable of their careers.

“You felt a part of them because you were the first face they saw when they left those gates,” United Airlines flight attendant Hope Williams said after a flight from Doha, Qatar, to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “I think when someone tells you that you’re going to safety, that’s what makes the difference.”

Williams worked one of the first U.S. relief flights for United.

“I feel like I lived up to the name my parents gave me. My name is Hope, and even for seven hours — it was short, but I gave them hope,” Williams told ABC News in an interview at Washington Dulles International Airport. “It was a relief to see the children once they made it onto the plane, even at a young age. I think they understood that they were safe.”

United, American and Delta are among six U.S. commercial carriers that bring evacuees to the U.S. under Civil Air Reserve Fleet (CRAF), a Department of Defense program that allows the federal government to use commercial planes during a national defense crisis. The program has only been activated twice before.

Onboard Williams’ flight were dozens of young children, a mother who had a caesarian section three days earlier, her newborn child and an amputee who had been thrown over the airport wall in Kabul. Many had no idea of the plane’s destination.

“Immediately everyone said, where are we going? We’re going to Germany. Where are we going after that? The United States of America. There are a lot of smiles, especially from the children. They did speak English and were able to articulate that to the parents.”

For many evacuees, it was their first time flying.

“I had an elderly lady friend in the back. And unfortunately, the seat that she was sitting in was just to two seats. She was able to sit there by herself, but towards the end, like during the flight, she laid down on the floor, it was just so uncomfortable. But that’s not safe. We’re not allowed to do that. So just talking to her, rubbing her back, I think that made the difference. Felt like grandma to me,” Williams said.

When the first flights arrived at Dulles, federal officials weren’t fully prepared for the arrivals. Evacuees were kept on planes as long as 12 hours after landing. United brought food, diapers, toy and new crews on board to help.

Monique Williams is normally a manager at Dulles but is also a trained flight attendant. When the first flight waited at the gate for six hours with the original crew, she swapped in and stayed on board until customs agents finally gave clearance to deplane.

“I spoke to a woman who was on board with her husband and her twin kids, a boy and a girl. And she was talking to me about her, how her husband works for the U.S. government. And she was discussing how they had to basically within 10 minutes time, pick up whatever they could carry to get in a car, to get out of one location, to try to change cars, to get into another location, to change cars again for the third time, to finally get to the [Kabul] airport. And she mentioned how it was days that they didn’t have adequate food or water, they didn’t shower,” she said.

“I just have to commend our crews because they didn’t want to leave,” she added. “They wanted to stay on the flight with all the people because they had heard these stories. They had built relationships. They had built bonds in the short period of time that they didn’t want to leave them. It was like their family.”

United CEO Scott Kirby flew to Washington to hear the stories.

“They’ll never be another moment like this in my career. And we at United Airlines, all of us, we’re honored to play a small role in helping get the people back here to the United States,” Kirby said. “Dulles Airport for many of these people is going to be like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This will be the place that they always remember where they came to freedom.”

ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Nate Luna contributed to this report

Nene Leakes’ husband Gregg loses battle with cancer

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Gregg Leakes, the husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Nene Leakes, has lost his battle with cancer. He was 66.

“Today the Leakes family is in deep pain with a broken heart,” reads a statement from a rep for the famous couple. “After a long battle with cancer, Gregg Leakes has passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by all of his children, very close loved ones and wife Nene Leakes.”

The statement concludes, “We ask that you pray for peace and strength over their family & allow them to mourn in private during this very very difficult time.”

Incidentally, the news came days after Nene told patrons at her Atlanta lounge that Gregg “was transitioning to the other side.”

Gregg was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2018, but it went into remission after treatment. In June, Nene shared that the cancer had returned and Gregg had undergone surgery.

Student killed in shooting at North Carolina high school, suspect at-large: Police

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.) — A high schooler has died after being shot Wednesday at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, authorities said.

The victim was identified by authorities as William Chavis Raynard Miller Jr.

The suspect has not been apprehended, authorities said at a news conference over four hours after the shooting was reported around noon. The suspect is believed to be a student, authorities said.

“We have a mother and family who will not be able to hug their child tonight,” Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said.

No one else was shot, authorities said, but some students suffered trauma-related health problems, including one student who had a seizure.

The school was locked down immediately after the shooting, police said. Once the campus was secured, students were sent to a local grocery store to be reunited with their parents, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said.

There is no known threat to the school at this time, police said.

Agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene.

Mount Tabor’s school year started just last week.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper noted in a tweet that this was the second school shooting in the state this week. A 15-year-old was injured in a shooting at New Hanover High School in Wilmington on Monday.

“Our prayers are with the victims, their families and all the students of Mt. Tabor High School in Winston-Salem,” Cooper tweeted. “We must work to ensure the safety of students and educators, quickly apprehend the shooter and keep guns off school grounds.”

Showtime debuts trailer for The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show documentary

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Weeknd received an Emmy nomination for his Super Bowl halftime performance, and now Showtime is taking us behind the scenes of the multi-million dollar production in a new documentary titled The Show.

A trailer was released Wednesday capturing the numerous rehearsals in dance studios and stadiums, and the preparations for the special effects, as well as clips from the actual show.

The Blinding Lights singer, who spent $7 million himself to create his halftime mini-concert, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he felt enormous pressure to deliver a special show.

“Oh yeah, absolutely. Naturally. Just the idea that it’s the Super Bowl alone, you know, there was that pressure,” he said. “Then, having to adjust to what we’re dealing with and making it a COVID-safe, COVID-free environment.”

“The silver lining was that we got to be very creative and got to make it a cinematic journey,” The Weeknd continued. “Less of a halftime show spectacle, more of a narrative. So there was a silver lining in that, but we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. We were kind of blind, but it turned out great.”

The halftime performance is up for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special. The Show will debut Friday, September 24 at 9 p.m., 8 p.m. Central, on Showtime.

Majority of companies plan to have COVID-19 vaccine mandate, survey finds

September 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Once a touchy subject in the private sector, a new survey indicates that most firms are now planning on having COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their workforce.

The number of companies requiring workers to get the shot is expected to surge over the next several months, according to data released by Wednesday by Willis Towers Watson, a multinational advisory and insurance firm.

Over half of the employers surveyed (52%) said that by the fourth quarter of 2021, they could have one or more vaccine mandate requirements in the workplace. This ranges from requiring vaccinations for employees to access common areas (such as cafeterias) to requiring the jab for a subset of specific employees to requiring it for all employees. This is a major hike from the current 21% of firms that have some type of vaccine mandate in place for employees.

The survey was conducted between Aug. 18 and 25 — in the wake of the insidious spread of the more contagious delta variant — and respondents included nearly 1,000 U.S. employers that together employ nearly 10 million workers.

“The delta variant has made employers take new actions to keep their workers — and workplaces — safe and healthy. We expect even more employers to institute vaccine mandates in the wake of FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine,” Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, the population health leader at Willis Towers Watson, said in a statement.

“This is not an easy situation for employers to navigate,” Levin-Scherz added. “For instance, new policies such as tracking workers’ vaccinations can improve safety but also bring additional administrative requirements. At the same time, employers will continue efforts to encourage vaccination and communicate regularly with employees.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are imploring Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and those around them from the virus that has left more than 600,000 dead in the U.S.

“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” the CDC states on its website. “Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.”

Still, vaccine requirements have emerged as a hot button issue for a vocal faction of Americans resisting the shot, despite the U.S. recording the highest number of coronavirus cases.

Breaking down the survey data further, some 29% of employers said they are planning or considering making vaccinations a requirement to gain access to the workplace, and some 21% are planning or considering vaccination as a condition of employment for all employees.

The number of firms that track or will track their employees’ vaccination status is also rising, the data found. Some 59% of employers currently track their employees’ vaccination status, and an additional 19% are planning or considering to do so later this year — bringing the total to some 78% of employers.

Around 31% of employers are either offering or considering offering financial incentives to staff for getting vaccinated.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission said employers can legally require COVID-19 vaccines to re-enter a physical workplace as long as they follow requirements to find alternative arrangements for employees unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons or because they have religious objections. Still, mandates have spurred showdowns and lawsuits from workers across the country.

Approximately 61.4% of the U.S. population 12 years of age and older are fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to CDC data, and some 72.2% have received at least one dose.

Separate from vaccine mandate plans, around 80% of respondents also said that they require employees to wear masks indoors at any location — and an additional 13% are planning or considering doing so. A majority (75%) are also using workplace exposure tracing to alert employees to a potential exposure, with another 8% planning or considering doing so.

As for a return to normal, about 39% of companies now expect their organizations won’t reach a “new normal” in terms of returning to the workplace and ending pandemic-related policies and programs until the second quarter of 2022. About a quarter (26%) expect a return to normal in the first quarter of 2022.

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