Disney has put on pause a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees of its Florida theme park after the State Legislature and the governor made it illegal for employers to require all workers get the shots, a company spokesperson confirmed Saturday.Walt Disney World could have been facing fines under the policy now on hold, illustrating how even one of the most iconic tourism brands in the state has to deal with the headwinds of political debate over the pandemic response.The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature delivered the bill blocking Covid-19 mandates on Wednesday and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law on Thursday, casting the measures as an effort to protect workers who could lose their jobs for lack of compliance.Governor DeSantis, also a Republican, has been at the forefront of the political fight to curtail mask and vaccine mandates, saying the push against those restrictions counters overreach from the federal government. “Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates and we had a responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the people of Florida,” the governor said in a statement.The Biden administration has ordered vaccinations for workers in large companies and members of the federal work force, but the effort has met resistance across the country. Florida is among states that have challenged federal mandates in court.The new Florida law prohibits employers from enforcing strict vaccine mandates, allowing employees to choose exemptions that include health or religious concerns, pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy, and having had the virus and recovered from it. Unvaccinated workers could instead undergo periodic testing or wear protective equipment, at the employers’ cost. Fines for violation could cost $10,000 a day per employee violation for businesses with fewer than 99 employees or up to $50,000 per employee violation for larger businesses.Government entities and school districts are also restricted by the Covid mandate ban.Disney World had struck a deal with employees to require theme park workers be fully vaccinated against Covid to keep their jobs, and the company defended that rule in a statement Saturday. “We believe that our approach to mandatory vaccines has been the right one as we’ve continued to focus on the safety and well-being of our Cast Members and Guests,” the statement said in part.More than 90 percent of active cast members in Florida had verified they were vaccinated, the company said, before it sent a memo to employees halting the mandate.Walt Disney’s website tells visitors it has been “very intentional and gradual” in operating safely, recommending guests exercise caution: wearing face coverings, checking for symptoms and getting the shots. “We encourage people to get vaccinated,” it says.Todd Gregory

The Delta variant of the coronavirus has overtaken others in the United States and now represents more than 99 percent of cases tracked in the country, according to the latest biweekly report of sequencing data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The variant is the same that was linked to surges of infections in Britain and India this spring and summer, with outbreaks resurfacing after cases had seemed to be on the decline. The Delta variant has been fueling outbreaks in the U.S. through this summer as well, as many people resisted getting the Covid-19 vaccine.The latest numbers underscore the transmissibility of the variant, as it climbed from just over a quarter of cases by mid-June to near total dominance in September.“It’s not unexpected, because it’s more transmissible, but it is also a strong reminder that we need to have continuous vigilance,” said Dr. Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at George Mason University.The C.D.C.’s COVID Data Tracker, reporting results for the two-week period ending on Sept. 11, put the B.1.617.2 lineage of Delta at 99.4 percent among variants of concern, with two other Delta lineages tracked at 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, the Mu variant at 0.1 percent and several other, unidentified variants at 0.2 percent, all for the same period. The results are based on thousands of sequences provided every week through the C.D.C.’s national genomic surveillance efforts, the agency website says.The country recently experienced a rise in hospitalizations despite the availability of vaccines, and the Delta variant was cited as the culprit in the virus’s advance.“We’re seeing more children in the hospital now because the Delta variant is more readily transmissible among everybody, adults and children,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, told The New York Times.Popescu said the rise of Delta should help Americans and health officials realize the coronavirus remains a serious public health threat.“The biggest piece is, ‘Don’t let your guard down.’ We need continuous surveillance, genomic sequencing, access to testing and public health interventions,” Popescu said.Vaccination and wearing masks can help, she said.“We have transmission occurring with very limited exposure, and that means that, for example, times without a mask, when you are out and around others, become much more of a risk,” Popescu said.