Washington, Jan 9 (IANS): Citigroup, the American multinational investment bank, has reiterated its Covid-19 vaccination mandate and told its US-based workers to be inoculated before January 14, or they will be fired by the end of the month, according to media reports.

Bloomberg cited a Citigroup spokesperson as saying that the company will place workers who refuse to get vaccinated against the virus by January 14 on unpaid leave, then their employment will be terminated at the end of the month, reports Xinhua news agency.

Headquartered in New York, the bank rolled out the vaccination mandate two months ago, requiring all of its US-based employees to be vaccinated as a condition of their employment.

Citi's Head of Human Resources Sara Wechter wrote on LinkedIn in October 2021 that there were two key factors behind the mandate: the bank has an obligation to comply with the White House mandate that individuals supporting government contracts be fully vaccinated; a vaccinated workforce ensures the health and safety of Citi staff when returning to the office.

She also explained that Citi will assess all requests for religious, medical or any other accommodation required by state or local law on a case by case basis.

Citigroup has some 70,000 US employees, and so far about 95 per cent of them have been vaccinated, according to media reports quoting sources.

The Supreme Court has heard arguments concerning President Joe Biden's mandate that all US companies with at least 100 employees have them either be vaccinated or subjected to weekly tests.

Many of the large companies including Delta Airlines, Ford, GE and Wall Street giants have tightened their restrictive measures against Covid-19 since the breakout of the Omicronvariant, and most of them have announced their own vaccination policies either mandating vaccination or prohibiting entry into offices by the unvaccinated.