ATLANTA — Before President Joe Biden was even finished with his evening address on Thursday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp took to Twitter to respond.
"I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration," he said in the tweet.
Biden announced new federal vaccine requirements that would affect as many as 100 million Americans in an effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant.
The government's new rules, announced Thursday, mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly.
Biden is also signing an executive order requiring vaccination for all employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government. No testing opt-out is expected to be included for the executive branch requirement.
The state of Georgia has continued to be among the lowest in the country for the number of residents vaccinated for COVID-19.
As of Thursday, 45 percent of eligible Georgians are fully vaccinated, according to state data. Georgia has administered 9,955,554 vaccines in the state.
There have been 1,144,884 cases confirmed in Georgia since the pandemic began. There have been 4,816 new cases since yesterday.
Below is a list of highlights from Biden's plan.
-- The Associated Press attributed to this report.
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