The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 struck down a mandate from President Joe Biden’s administration requiring employees at large businesses to get a COVID-19 vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.
The high court did allow the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers.
Biden sought to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees.
The Associated Press reported that more than 80 million people would have been affected and OSHA had estimated that the rule would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.
After several weeks of surging COVID-19 cases across Rhode Island, the daily totals this week have dropped below recent highs but remain well above a year ago.