Federal COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements for larger private sector employers, including those in the promotional products industry, are back in play.

The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated a mandate from President Joe Biden’s administration that orders that workers at companies with 100 or more employees in the United States must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, 2022, or submit to weekly coronavirus tests to confirm they don’t have the virus. The mandate affects about 80 million private sector workers.

The reinstatement came after a different court issued an injunction in November against the rules, implementation and enforcement of which is being handled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“The OSHA vaccination or testing rule will ensure businesses enact measures that will protect their employees,” White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. “Especially as the U.S. faces the highly transmissible omicron variant, it’s critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment.”

The 6th U.S. Court of Appeals reasoned that the mandate passes legal muster, in part, because there is precedent for OSHA using broad discretion to protect workers.

While Jan. 4 is the day the rules take effect, OSHA has said it will exercise “enforcement discretion” with respect to compliance dates.

For instance, the U.S. Department of Labor has noted that OSHA will not start issuing citations to companies that fail to comply with the mandate until Jan. 10. Meanwhile, OSHA will refrain from citing companies for infractions related particularly to the testing requirements until Feb. 9, provided the businesses are making good faith efforts to comply with the mandate.

Despite the victory for the Biden administration, the legal battle over the vaccination-or-testing mandate is far from over. The case is heading to the Supreme Court, where legal fights related to other COVID vaccine requirements, such as those the Biden administration wants to implement for healthcare workers in facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds, are also being waged.