\IBM said on Thursday it requires all U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8, or they will face unpaid suspension.

This comes in the light of U.S. President Joe Biden's mandate last month ordering all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated, with a few exceptions, and private employers with 100 or more workers to require employees to be vaccinated or tested weekly..

IBM, which is a federal contractor, has tens of thousands of U.S. employees.

IBM had previously said it would allow only fully vaccinated U.S. employees to return to offices. However, the new policy applies to all U.S. employees, even those working from home. Some can, however, claim exemption from the rule on medical and religious grounds.

With the resurgence of cases due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus, major tech companies including Facebook Inc, Google and Microsoft Corp have also mandated vaccinations for employees.