On December 29, 2021, healthcare workers leave the METRORail due to a shift in the country as the Omicron variant of the coronaviruses continues to spread through the country in Houston, Texas, USA. CALLAGHAN O'HARE REUTERS WASHINGTON PARIS The US Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge by Missouri and nine other states, mostly Republican-led by President Joe Biden's COVID 19 vaccine mandate for workers in healthcare facilities that receive federal funds.
The justices turned down an appeal by the states after a lower court declined to consider their claims that the vaccine rule is in violation of federal administrative law and tramples over powers reserved for the states under the US Constitution. The rule was issued by the Democratic president's administration in November 2021.
In January, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5 -- 4 decision to let Biden enforce the healthcare worker mandate while litigation on its legal merits continued in lower courts. The justices decided 6 -- 3 to halt his administration's rule requiring vaccines or weekly COVID- 19 tests for employees at businesses with at least 100 employees.
The federal healthcare worker rule requires vaccination for about 10.3 million workers at 76,000 healthcare facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes that accept money from Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs for elderly, disabled and low-income Americans.
People wearing protective face masks walk near the glass pyramid of the Louvre museum in Paris, amid the outbreak of the coronaviruses COVID 19 in France, February 19, 2022. GONZALO FUENTES REUTERS France entered an eighth wave of the COVID 19 virus as the winter season approaches, said a leading French health official.
Brigitte Autran, who is a member of the government's vaccination strategic board, said we are in this eighth wave.
Autran said all the indicators are on the up.
READ MORE: EMA: Take whatever COVID- 19 booster you can get.
France's COVID figures showed on Monday that the seven day moving average of daily new cases had reached, with the latest reported figure of 45,631, its highest level since August 2.
The World Health Organization said that France's number of COVID deaths currently stands at over 151,500.