The requirements make “workplaces safer for workers as well as for customers.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to block the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for large private businesses is a “setback for public health,” United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.

“Well, the news about the workplace requirement being blocked was very disappointing, Martha. It was a setback for public health. Because what these requirements ultimately are helpful for is not just protecting the community at large; but making our workplaces safer for workers as well as for customers,” Murthy said.

“So the good news, though, is that there is nothing that stops workplaces from voluntarily putting reasonable requirements in place. In fact, many have done so already; a third of the Fortune 100 companies have put these in place and many more outside have, so we are certainly encouraging companies to put these requirements in place voluntarily.”

Murthy’s remarks come as President Joe Biden’s administration continues to ramp up efforts to stop the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Senior White House officials said on Friday that the administration will launch a new website Wednesday for requesting free at-home rapid COVID tests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also updated its masking guidelines on Friday, writing that Americans may want to use higher-quality face masks such as KN95 or N95 respirators.

But the administration faced a setback on Thursday when the Supreme Court issued a stay of the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for private businesses of 100 or more workers.

Some large companies are changing their plans based on the decision. General Electric confirmed to ABC News last week that it would stop implementing a planned vaccine mandate after the Supreme Court ruling.

But Columbia Sportswear said in a statement that it is “disappointed in [Thursday’s] Supreme Court ruling” because it would mean the company would have to deal “with a thicket of conflicting state and local regulations.”

After Murthy spoke about the Biden administration’s plans to send out more COVID-19 tests to testing sites and to send out rapid home tests, Raddatz pressed him: “Dr. Murthy, I know what you’re doing now, but the question is, why wasn’t it done sooner? Look, you say you always hold out hope, but you plan for the worst. It doesn’t sound like that happened.”

“Well, there was planning, Martha, and there was execution on increasing the supply of tests,” Murthy responded. “Which is why if you compare December to January of 2021, you see there was a dramatic increase, a more than eightfold increase in testing, in fact, during that timeframe, but the challenge was that Omicron created an extraordinary increase in demand… And so we have to close that gap. And that’s exactly what we have been doing.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.



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