Health care workers covered by the Biden administration's vaccine mandate will have until March 15 to be fully vaccinated in the 24 states where the requirement was reinstated by the Supreme Court, the agency implementing the policy said Friday.Twenty-five states and Washington, DC, continue to face a Feb. 28 deadline for covered health care workers to be fully vaccinated, as the mandate had not been blocked in those states before the Supreme Court order that came down Thursday.The mandate — issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — remains blocked in Texas.Texas had brought its own lawsuit challenging the mandate separate from the cases that were before the Supreme Court and the preliminary injunction that was issued in that case last year still stands. The mandate covers health care workers at facilitates that participate in Medicare and Medicaid. On Thursday, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court lifted lower court orders that were freezing the mandate in 24 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.A spokesperson for CMS told CNN in a statement the health care providers in those 24 states will have 30 days from the issuance of forthcoming guidance to establish plans and procedures to ensure their staff are fully vaccinated by March 15.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the definition of fully vaccinated is two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The CDC also recommends that eligible individuals receive a booster shot in addition to their primary vaccine series, but a booster is not required under the CMS rules for health care workers.

WASHINGTON —

The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation's COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.

At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court's orders Thursday came during a spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant.

The court's conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. 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.

"OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here," the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion.

In dissent, the court's three liberals argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgment for that of health experts.

"Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies," Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent.

President Joe Biden said he was "disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law."

Biden called on businesses to institute their own vaccination requirements, noting that a third of Fortune 100 companies already have done so.

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When crafting the OSHA rule, White House officials always anticipated legal challenges — and privately some harbored doubts that it could withstand them. The administration nonetheless still views the rule as a success at already driving millions of people to get vaccinated and encouraging private businesses to implement their own requirements that are unaffected by the legal challenge.

The OSHA regulation had initially been blocked by a federal appeals court in New Orleans, then allowed to take effect by a federal appellate panel in Cincinnati.

Both rules had been challenged by Republican-led states. In addition, business groups attacked the OSHA emergency regulation as too expensive and likely to cause workers to leave their jobs at a time when finding new employees already is difficult.

The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, called the Supreme Court's decision "a significant victory for employers."

The vaccine mandate that the court will allow to be enforced nationwide scraped by on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the liberals to form a majority. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country, applying to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.

Biden said that decision by the court "will save lives."

In an unsigned opinion, the court wrote: "The challenges posed by a global pandemic do not allow a federal agency to exercise power that Congress has not conferred upon it. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances provide no grounds for limiting the exercise of authorities the agency has long been recognized to have." It said the "latter principle governs" in the health care arena.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent that the case was about whether the administration has the authority "to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo." He said the administration hadn't shown convincingly that Congress gave it that authority.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett signed onto Thomas' opinion. Alito wrote a separate dissent that the other three conservatives also joined.

Decisions by federal appeals courts in New Orleans and St. Louis had blocked the mandate in about half the states. The administration already was taking steps to enforce it elsewhere.

More than 208 million Americans, 62.7% of the population, are fully vaccinated, and more than a third of those have received booster shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All nine justices have gotten booster shots.

The courthouse remains closed to the public, and lawyers and reporters are asked for negative test results before being allowed inside the courtroom for arguments, though vaccinations are not required.

The justices heard arguments on the challenges last week. Their questions then hinted at the split verdict that they issued Thursday.

A separate vaccine mandate for federal contractors, on hold after lower courts blocked it, has not been considered by the Supreme Court.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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This story corrects that four justices noted dissents in the health care vaccine case, not just Alito and Thomas.

The Biden administration said Saturday that it would allow companies with at least 100 employees more time to comply with a rule that requires them to mandate vaccinations or regular testing among its workers.

In a statement on Saturday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it would allow companies more time to implement changes "to account for any uncertainty" amid the legal drama behind the mandate.

The announcement came hours after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Biden Administration policy could take effect. That decision overruled the Fifth Circuit, which in November ordered that implementation of the policy be halted while courts considered its legality.

The rules force companies with more than 100 workers to require vaccinations among their employees. Workers who do not get a shot must wear a mask and submit to weekly COVID-19 tests. The policy was originally supposed to go into effect on Jan. 4

On Saturday, OSHA said it would not issue penalties to companies not in compliance with the rule before Jan. 10. In addition, OSHA is also giving companies an extra month to set up regular testing options for unvaccinated employees, adding that it won't issue citations regarding testing until Feb. 9.

The Supreme Court is likely to weigh in on the rule in the weeks ahead.

A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.

The rule from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was to take effect Jan. 4. With Friday’s ruling, it’s not clear when the requirement may be put in place.

Republican-led states joined with conservative groups, business associations and some individual businesses to push back against the requirement as soon as OSHA published the rules in early November. They argued that OSHA was not authorized to make the emergency rule.

The case was consolidated before the Cincinnati-based 6th circuit, which is dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Of the two ruling in favor of the OSHA mandate, one was appointed by a Democratic president and the other by a Republican. The dissenting judge was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

"Given OSHA’s clear and exercised authority to regulate viruses, OSHA necessarily has the authority to regulate infectious diseases that are not unique to the workplace," Judge Julia Smith Gibbons wrote in her majority opinion.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the order.

"The Sixth Circuit’s decision is extremely disappointing for Arkansans because it will force them to get the shot or lose their jobs," she said.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who also is chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said in a Twitter message Friday that he was confident the mandate could be stopped.

The vaccine requirement would apply to companies with 100 or more employees and would cover about 84 million workers. Employees who are not fully vaccinated would have to wear masks and be subject to weekly tests for the coronavirus. There would be exceptions for those who work outdoors or only at home.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Biden administration from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

The mandate was scheduled to take effect in January.

In balancing the harms of letting the mandate take effect or issuing an injunction, U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker said an injunction would maintain the status quo.

However, he said allowing the mandate to take effect "would significantly alter their (the plaintiff's) ability to perform federal contract work which is critical to their operations."

Biden's vaccine mandates have repeatedly been blocked by courts.

Last week, a federal judge blocked a mandate for federal contractors in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee to get vaccinated.

A different judge also blocked a mandate for health care workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The White House has not addressed how it plans to respond to Tuesday's ruling.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. —

Disney has paused its policy requiring Florida-based employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine following new laws passed by the state's legislature last week that limit employers' power to require vaccinations, according to a memo sent to employees.

The company informed employees in a memo sent Friday that it has paused the requirement due to the state legislature's action during a special session last week, and because of an appeal court's temporary delay of federal vaccination guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

"We believe that our approach to mandatory vaccines has been the right one as we've continued to focus on the safety and well-being of our Cast Members and Guests, and at this point, more than 90 percent of active Florida-based Cast Members have already verified that they are fully vaccinated. We will address legal developments as appropriate," Disney said in a statement Monday afternoon.

Any Disney employees who are not fully vaccinated will be required to wear face coverings and observe social distancing and other safety protocols, according to the memo.

In addition, the company has paused consideration of vaccine exemption requests, the newspaper reported. Also, employees who have not finished the vaccine verification process will be considered unvaccinated for the time being, the memo said.

The company had given non-union workers until Sept. 28 to complete the vaccine course. Union represented employees reached a deal with the company and were given through Oct. 22 to provide proof of vaccination.

The bills signed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last Thursday require companies to allow workers who agree to regular testing and to wear protective gear to be exempt from required vaccinations. The new laws also allow religious or medical exemptions, which Disney had already included in its mandate.

Challenges to President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers will be consolidated in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel dominated by judges appointed by Republicans.

The Cincinnati-based court was selected Tuesday in a random drawing using ping-pong balls, a process employed when challenges to certain federal agency actions are filed in multiple courts.

The selection could be good news for those challenging the administration's vaccine requirement, which includes officials in 27 Republican-led states, employers and several conservative and business organizations. They argue the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have the authority to impose the mandate.

The challenges, along with some from unions that said the vaccine mandate didn't go far enough, were made this month in 12 circuit courts. Under an arcane system, it was up to the clerk of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict litigation to select a ping-pong ball from a bin to choose where the cases would be heard.

It was a favorable outcome for Republicans. Eleven of the 16 full-time judges in the 6th Circuit were appointed by Republican presidents. Accounting for one of the Republican-appointed judges, Helene White, who often sides with judges appointed by Democrats and adding senior judges who are semi-retired but still hear cases, the split is 19-9 in favor of Republicans. Six of the full-time judges were appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Another court where a majority of judges were nominated by Republicans, the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, issued a ruling that put the mandate on hold.

It's not clear whether the court that will hear the case will act as the 5th Circuit did and side quickly with the Republican challengers. But legal experts have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the politicization of both federal and state courts, raising questions about whether justice is fairly administered or dispensed through a partisan lens.

Allison Orr Larsen, a professor at William & Mary Law School, coauthored a study published this year that found growing partisanship in federal judicial decisions. For decades, the study found that rulings on cases in which all judges in a circuit weighed in generally were not decided along party lines based on the presidents who appointed the judges.

“We did see a concerning spike starting in 2018 that led us to wring our hands,” Larsen said in an interview.

The increasing partisanship in a branch of government that is supposed to be blind to partisan politics was seen in judges appointed by presidents of both parties, but Larsen said it's not clear why that was or whether it will last.

Some of the federal courts moved to the right when Donald Trump was president and Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate, which confirms judicial nominees. Trump appointed 54 judges to the circuit courts, which are one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, including filling one seat twice. That represents nearly 30% of the seats on the circuit courts, where cases are most often considered by three-judge panels.

Trump's appointees flipped the 11th Circuit in the South to Republican control and expanded the GOP-appointed majorities in the 5th, 6th and 8th Circuits in the Midwest and South. Biden's three appointees switched the New York-based 2nd Circuit to Democratic control.

Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups mostly filed their challenges in circuit courts dominated by conservative judges, while the unions went to circuits with more judges nominated by Democratic presidents.

In all, 34 objections have been filed in all 11 regional circuits plus the one for the District of Columbia. That’s where the ping-pong balls came in to play.

Under federal law, cases challenging federal agency actions get consolidated upon the agency's request if they are filed in multiple circuit courts. Each circuit where a challenge is filed within the first 10 days of the agency taking action has an equal chance of being selected.

It was up to the judicial panel's clerk, John W. Nichols, to select a ping-pong ball from a bin, according to a Tuesday court filing by the panel. The office denied a request by The Associated Press to allow media access to the drawing.

Previously this year, the lottery had been used to assign just two cases. One involved fallout from a National Labor Relations Board ruling on an anti-union Twitter message by Tesla founder Elon Musk where objectors filed in two circuits. The other was over orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in which objectors filed in three.

The employer vaccine mandate is higher profile and further reaching. It calls for businesses with more than 100 workers to require employees to be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or wear masks and be tested weekly for COVID-19. Exemptions are provided for religious reasons and for those who work at home or only outdoors.

Because it's an unusual rule from the workplace safety agency, there is no consensus among lawyers on how the challenges will go. OSHA has issued just 10 emergency rules in the half century since it was formed. Of the six challenged in court, only one survived intact.

The Biden administration has insisted it’s on strong legal footing. It also has the backing of the American Medical Association, which filed papers in support of the mandate.

“The AMA’s extensive review of the medical literature demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved by FDA are safe and effective, and the widespread use of those vaccines is the best way to keep COVID-19 from spreading within workplaces,” the group said in its filing.

Among those challenging the rule is a consortium of construction contractors. They say they want their workers vaccinated, but that a requirement only on larger companies is just pushing vaccine-hesitant workers to take jobs with companies that have fewer than 100 employees.

“Crafting an unworkable rule that will do little to get construction workers vaccinated is an approach that is not only wrong, but likely counterproductive,” said Scott Casabona, president of Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance.

Officials with the workplace safety agency say they’re considering extending the mandate to smaller employers.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit extended the stay of the OSHA rule in an opinion released last Friday, expressing skepticism that the agency had authority to implement the vaccine requirement. The 6th Circuit could modify, revoke or extend the stay.

It had not yet been determined which judges from the 6th Circuit will be on a three-judge panel to hear the case or whether it will be considered by all the judges.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the selection of the court.

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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.

A federal court declined Friday to lift its stay on the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay last Saturday of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.

Lawyers for the Justice and Labor departments filed a response Monday in which they said stopping the mandate from taking effect will only prolong the COVID-19 pandemic and would "cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day."

But the appeals court rejected that argument Friday. Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt wrote that the stay "is firmly in the public interest."

"From economic uncertainty to workplace strife, the mere specter of the Mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months," Engelhardt wrote.

At least 27 states have filed legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts after OSHA released its rules on Nov. 4. The federal government said in its court filings Monday that the cases should be consolidated and that one of the circuit courts where a legal challenge has been filed should be chosen at random on Nov. 16 to hear it.

Administration lawyers said there is no reason to keep the vaccine mandate on hold while the court where the cases ultimately land remains undetermined.

CINCINNATI — We now know the timeline for the national workplace vaccine mandate the Biden Administration ordered in September.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration filed the 490-page guidelines with the Federal Register Thursday morning. The Federal Register expects to publish the rule Friday.

The new standard gives businesses with 100 or more employees 30 days to come up with a vaccination policy and workers 60 days to show vaccine proof or submit to weekly testing.

That means you could have to show proof of vaccination by January 4, 2022.

The ETS also requires employers to do the following:

• Determine the vaccination status of each employee, obtain acceptable proof of vaccination status from vaccinated employees and maintain records and a roster of each employee’s vaccination status.
• Require employees to provide prompt notice when they test positive for COVID-19 or receive a COVID-19 diagnosis. Employers must then remove the employee from the workplace, regardless of vaccination status; employers must not allow them to return to work until they meet required criteria.
• Ensure each worker who is not fully vaccinated is tested for COVID-19 at least weekly (if the worker is in the workplace at least once a week) or within 7 days before returning to work (if the worker is away from the workplace for a week or longer).
• Ensure that, in most circumstances, each employee who has not been fully vaccinated wears a face covering when indoors or when occupying a vehicle with another person for work purposes.

We spoke to a few companies about what they will do about the looming deadline.

“We certainly will follow the federal guidelines,” said Tim Schroeder, Chief Executive Officer of Greater Cincinnati-based CTI.

Others, like P&G, already have policies on hold, ready to go. Some, like Cincinnati Financial and Fifth Third Bank, say they are still reading the rule.

OSHA said it will allow companies to make certain accommodations for those with religious objections to testing.

Some businesses questioned what this means if the majority of their employees work from home. OSHA said those that work from home full time will not have to submit to testing or show vaccine proof.

OSHA addresses seasonal workers, contractors and other frequently asked questions here.

Attorney General Dave Yost plans to file a lawsuit in federal court Friday asking a judge to pause the mandate and decide if it is Constitutional.

“I encourage people to get the vaccine. What I stand against is the president taking the power to order us what we're going to inject into our bodies,” said Yost.

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Labor to come up with a rule in September. The goal was to get more people vaccinated and lead us out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

”He’s not Congress. He doesn’t have the right to go in and promulgate a law,” said Yost.

Yost argues it is outside OSHA’s scope, too.

“It’s supposed to be workplace issues. Things that belong in a workplace: an acid vat, scaffolding, a lack of railing. It doesn't apply to something that exists everywhere in the world,” said Yost.

Video above: U.S. mandates vaccines or tests for big companies

More than half of the states in the country have filed or signed on to lawsuits challenging the Biden administration's federal vaccine mandate for large companies.

The law, which is set to take effect Jan. 4, would require companies with 100 employees or more as well as any federal contractors to mandate the vaccine or start weekly testing of their workers. This would impact more than 84 million workers, roughly 31 million of whom are unvaccinated.

At least 27 states s0 far, most of which are Republican-led, have decided to take legal action against the new rules, claiming the mandate is an example of federal overreach and both "unlawful and unconstitutional."

Florida kicked off the states' legal pushback against the mandate, with Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing the Sunshine State's lawsuit on Oct. 29.

"Just months ago, Joe Biden was saying that it wouldn’t be appropriate or lawful for the federal government to mandate these COVID shots," DeSantis said. "But now we have somehow gone from 15 days to slow the spread to 3 jabs to keep your job. The federal government is exceeding their power and it is important for us to take a stand because in Florida we believe these are choices based on individual circumstances."

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said he stands by the mandate, adding that the administration is well-prepared for the avalanche of legal battles.

"We're confident about the rule put together, and I think it's unfortunate that this rule has been out for about eight hours now and people already are suing on it," Walsh said on "All Things Consider," an NPR news program. "This is about protecting workers in the workplace. This is about protecting Americans. This is about increasing our number of people in this country that are vaccinated."

Hearst station WPBF contributed to this report.

NEW YORK —

One in six New York City municipal workers remained unvaccinated after Friday’s deadline to show proof they’ve gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the city said Saturday.

A last-minute rush of jabs boosted the vaccination rate to 83% among police officers, firefighters, garbage collectors and other city workers covered by the mandate as of 8 p.m. Friday, up from 76% a day earlier.

The more than 26,000 workers who haven’t complied with the requirement will be put on unpaid leave starting Monday, leaving the Big Apple bracing for the possibility of closed firehouses, fewer police and ambulances and mounting trash.

Vaccination rates for the city’s fire and sanitation departments jumped significantly Friday as workers rushed to meet the deadline for the mandate and an extra incentive: Workers who get a shot by Friday will get $500.

The fire department’s rate rose 8% and the sanitation department saw an additional 10% of its staff get vaccinated Friday, according to city data. The fire and sanitation departments each have 23% of their staffs that still haven’t been vaccinated.

The NYPD had a 5% jump in vaccinations Friday, leaving 16% of police personnel who had yet to get a dose.

City officials have been weighing various contingencies to deal with an expected staffing shortfall come Monday.

The fire department said it was prepared to close up to 20% of its fire companies and have 20% fewer ambulances in service while also changing schedules, canceling vacations and turning to outside EMS providers to make up for expected staffing shortages.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the sanitation department will move to 12-hour shifts, as opposed to the usual 8-hour shifts, and begin working Sundays to ensure trash doesn’t pile up.

BOSTON — As a federal contractor, General Electric Co. will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

All GE U.S. employees must be fully vaccinated or receive a medical or religious exemption by Dec. 8, following President Joe Biden's announcement in September that anyone who works with or in the federal government must be vaccinated. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to create a rule for private businesses with 100 or more employees to require vaccination or undergo weekly testing.

The vaccine requirement will impact GE Aviation, headquartered outside Cincinnati, as well as employees at other locations.

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. announced it has delayed its deadline for employees to get vaccinated. Company spokesperson Patrick Blair said they pushed back the original Nov. 1 deadline "due to lack of broad availability of testing kits in certain parts of the country." P&G was complying with OSHA's anticipated rule.

The WCPO 9 I-Team surveyed Cincinnati’s largest employers and found a variety of approaches to vaccine requirements, but only one company revealed its vaccination rate. Western & Southern Financial Group Inc. – the city's third-largest company – said the company has a 76 percent vaccination rate, citing a bonus plan for employees having an effect on lifting the percentage.

Kroger, Cincinnati’s largest company with $132.5 billion in 2020 revenue and about 17,000 local employees, is “strongly encouraging” vaccination of customers and employees, spokeswoman Jenifer Moore wrote in an email to the I-Team.

RELATED:

President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the nation, touting his administration's efforts to have employers and industries require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Biden delivered his remarks from Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

"We know there is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of Americans vaccinated," Biden said.

In September, Biden laid out a six-pronged plan to combat COVID-19 this fall.

Part of that plan included a new rule from the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated. That provision also requires workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.

"In total, this Labor Department vaccination requirement will cover 100 million Americans," Biden said.

Biden has also signed executive orders requiring all federal workers to be vaccinated and all contractors working with the federal government to be vaccinated.

Since his directive was implemented within the military, Biden said vaccinations rates among active-duty members went from 67% to 97%.

Biden asserted that this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated, which is having an effect on the economy.

"Increased vaccination results in as many as 5 million American workers going back to work because they feel safe they can go back to work," Biden stated.

Biden appeared hopeful that cases will continue to come down if more people get vaccinated. He said cases have dropped by 40% over the last month. He added that rates of hospitalizations and deaths have also fallen.

"We're headed in the right direction if we keep our eye on the ball," he said.

NEW YORK —

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday temporarily suspending New York state from enforcing its vaccine mandate if health care workers claim a religious exemption.

The order bars the New York State Department of Health from requiring employers to deny or revoke religious exemptions for the vaccine. The health department issued an order in August requiring all health care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 27.

Seventeen Catholic and Baptist medical professionals who say they oppose getting the vaccine for religious reasons sought to prevent the state from enforcing the mandate, according to a federal complaint filed in New York on Monday.

The professionals — nine doctors, five nurses, a nuclear medicine technologist, a physician liaison and a rehabilitation therapist — wanted a judgment declaring the mandate "unconstitutional, unlawful, and unenforceable," according to the lawsuit.

"The Vaccine Mandate emerges in the context of an atmosphere of fear and irrationality in which the unvaccinated are threatened with being reduced to a caste of untouchables if they will not consent to being injected, even 'continuously,' with vaccines that violate their religious beliefs," the complaint said.

They are seeking a temporary statewide restraining order against the mandate followed by a permanent injunction, according to the lawsuit.

The judge set a Sept. 22 deadline for defendants to oppose the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, and he scheduled a hearing in the case for Sept. 28.

The mandate, the lawsuit argues, overrides protections provided under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, New York State's Human Rights Law, the Supremacy Clause as well as the First and 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit names New York Attorney General Letitia James, Commissioner Howard Zucker of the State Department of Health and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as defendants in the complaint.

CNN reached out to Hochul's office but was told it doesn't comment on pending litigation. CNN also reached out to Hochul's administration, the Department of Health and the attorney general's office for comment and was referred to the Department of Health.

Debate surrounding vaccine mandates has picked up since President Joe Biden announced a new plan to tackle the pandemic last week, which includes vaccine requirements in some workplaces.

Health experts and many officials have called vaccine mandates a necessary step to protect the population and slow the spread of the virus. But there has also been blowback from some state leaders, such as Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who have called the announcement at the federal level an overreach and pledged to challenge it in court.

Pope Francis declares vaccination 'the moral choice'

The plaintiffs cited religious convictions that prevent them from being inoculated with vaccines that they said "were tested, developed or produced with fetal cells line derived from procured abortions."

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna used cell lines originating from fetal tissue to test their vaccines, but they are not used in vaccine manufacturing or production, whereas fetal cell lines were used in Johnson & Johnson's "development, confirmation and production," according to Dr. James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at Nebraska Medicine.

Those cells are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue, said Lawler.

No major religious denomination has taken a stand opposing vaccination. Pope Francis declared it "the moral choice because it is about your life, but also the lives of others."

Last month, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas said it would not issue letters of exemption on religious grounds, according to a communication obtained by CNN.

"For the past several months, our Holy Father Pope Francis has made it clear that the various forms of COVID vaccines are morally acceptable, urging Catholics across the globe to become vaccinated, not only for their own safety and well-being, but also out of concern for the weak and vulnerable in our midst," Bishop George Leo Thomas said.

The Thomas More Society, a self-described pro-life group, provided the attorney for the 17 plaintiffs in this case.

The National Nurses Union applauded President Joe Biden's proposal to require that companies with more than 100 employees vaccinate their work force. The American Federation of Teachers once said vaccine mandates weren't necessary, but now embraces them. In Oregon, police and firefighter unions are suing to block a mask mandate for state workers.

The labor movement is torn over vaccine requirements — much like the country as a whole — wanting to both support its political ally in Biden and protect its members against infection but also not wanting to trample their workers' rights.

"Labor unions are a microcosm of the society we live in," said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of Cornell University's The Worker Institute. "The same political divide we have right now exists within the rank and file of unions."

Video above: Biden announces sweeping new vaccine rules

That divide complicates matters for Biden as he tries to get the delta variant under control. Unions are a key part of the Democratic Party, and Biden has embraced them to burnish his blue-collar, middle-class image. Dissent in Biden's own coalition may make it especially hard for him to implement new vaccination requirements. Some unions representing federal workers already objected to his push for inoculation among the U.S. government workforce, saying such matters involving new workplace requirements and discipline need to be negotiated at the bargaining table.

In a sign of the importance of the issue to the Biden administration, the White House reached out to union presidents before Biden announced his new policy Thursday and will continue to check in with labor leaders, said an administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss forthcoming plans.

Biden will require companies with more than 100 workers to give their employees shots or test them weekly. He will also mandate shots for executive branch workers and federal contractors with no testing opt-out. The new requirements could cover 100 million Americans.

Momentum seems to be on the side of mandates. The AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization over much of the country's unions, praised mandates and Biden's plan in a statement released Friday. "The resurgence of COVID-19 requires swift and immediate action, and we commend President Biden for taking additional steps to help put an end to this crisis. Everyone should be vaccinated — as one step in stopping the pandemic," the organization's president, Liz Shuler, said in the statement.

The AFT two weeks ago mandated that its employees in its offices be vaccinated and has become a strong advocate of workplaces requiring vaccinations. "Safety and health have been our north star since the beginning of the pandemic," said Randi Weingarten, the union's president. The union's support for mandates, she added, "creates great cheer among two-thirds of our people and will create agita in one-third of the people."

Still, many labor leaders are hesitant to wade into the mandate issue. Many of the employers of the workers of the Laborer's District Council of Western Pennsylvania, like hospitals, have begun requiring vaccinations. Whenever members complain, the council's business manager, Phillip Ameris, tells them it's not the union's call.

"What we have said is, 'we encourage our members to the get the vaccine,' but what we're telling everyone to do is to go to your physician," Ameris said. "We're trying to keep it nonpolitical. ... Go to your doctor and ask your doctor what is best for you."

Some of the most heated opposition has come from law enforcement unions. In Newark on Thursday, police and fire unions from across New Jersey protested against the mayor's vaccine mandate outside city hall. Police unions from Chicago to Richmond have pushed back against mandates in their cities. In Portland, Oregon, the local police union got its members exempted from the city's vaccine order and a group of police and firefighter unions is suing Gov. Kate Brown to block the state's vaccine requirement for its workers.

Simon Haeder, a political scientist who studies vaccine mandates at Penn State University, said it makes sense that the strongest resistance has come from police and firefighters. "The more conservative side of the labor movement, in terms of politics, are going to be the police and firefighter unions," he said, noting that response to the coronavirus has become highly polarized. "Yes, you're a union person and yes, you want the workplace to get back to normal, but the identity of being a Republican outweighs a lot of those things."

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said police officers are reacting like most Americans. "You've got, like in the rest of the country, really strong feelings on both sides," Johnson said.

Still, police unions can see the writing on the wall — and want any mandates to be negotiated through the collective bargaining process, Johnson said. "There's a sense from the union perspective that vaccination policy is pretty much going to be mandated," he said. "We want a place at the table when we discuss implementation."

Campos-Medina said mandatory vaccination is such an obviously important public health policy that she expects unions to ultimately accept it. She compared it to bans on indoor smoking, which rankled some unions years ago but is a subject that hardly ever comes up at the bargaining table today. "We will get there," she said.

Weingarten's union had initially, like Biden, opposed vaccine mandates and said persuading workers to get their shots was a better approach. But after the delta variant kicked caseloads higher this summer and filled up hospital beds, AFT reconsidered.

She, too, thinks unions will almost all ultimately coalesce behind a pro-mandate position. But, she notes, it will take time.

"The leadership in unions I talk to know that vaccines are really important," Weingarten said. "What they're trying to do is balance between all these different services and responsibilities we have to our members."

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. —

All eligible students attending Los Angeles Unified public schools — the nation's second-largest school district — will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the calendar year, the board of education voted.

Related video above: Over 250,000 children test positive for COVID-19 amid back-to-school season

In a special meeting held Thursday, the Los Angeles Unified School Board decided by unanimous vote that a mandate was appropriate based on the sudden surge of the virus brought about by the delta variant and data showing lower rates of infection and hospitalization among those who are vaccinated.

The proposal approved Thursday requires all eligible students 12 years of age and older to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine doses by no later than Nov. 21, and to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 19. Students who participate in in-person extracurricular activities, including sports, face an earlier deadline of Oct. 3 for a first dose of the vaccine and a second dose no later than Oct. 31.

The district, which includes more than 600,000 students, already mandates the vaccine for teachers and staff, requires face coverings be worn by all, and tests all students and staff for infections weekly. Classrooms have also been outfitted with enhanced ventilation systems in an effort to decrease the spread of the virus.

District spokesperson Shannon Haber was not able to provide the number of students affected by Thursday's decision, but noted that many students have already been inoculated.

The mandate will apply to all vaccine-eligible students who are attending school in person and would allow those with "qualified and approved exemptions" to opt-out, though the conditions weren't specified.

Students who decline the vaccine and have no exemptions can participate in the online Independent Study Program. About 15,000 students are currently enrolled in the remote learning program, according to board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

During the meeting, Interim Superintendent Megan Reilly framed the vaccine requirement as the best way to ensure children can reap the benefits of learning in person.

"As the second-largest district in the country, with a richly diverse student population, we know the impact and experiences of COVID-19 are varied amongst our students and our families, and that there are different levels of comfort and discomfort with the vaccine and other COVID-related safety measures," Reilly said.

"Along with these truths, our charge remains clear: to provide students with the best education possible, which includes the many benefits of in-person learning," she said.

Dr. Richard Pan, a state senator, pediatrician and district parent, advocated for the measure, pushing for "community immunity" to protect the kids that are too young to be eligible for the vaccine. He praised LAUSD for "leading the way" and "following the science to ensure schools are safe."

While some parents spoke in favor of the mandate, others angrily denounced the proposal.

"We must be the ones who decide for our children, not the district, not anyone else," admonished parent Carla Franca. "If you want to take your own children to the killing fields, you do it, but you are not the one who should be deciding," she said. "When you have your own kids, you can make your own crazy decisions."

School board member Nick Melvoin urged the board to support the mandate to return kids to a sense of normalcy, limiting the possibility of closing schools to in-person learning again, as some schools have been forced to do in areas with a low vaccination rate.

"It is our moral, ethical, political — pick a word — it's our responsibility to protect the children under 12 that cannot get protected any other way," said board member Jackie Goldberg, who spoke in favor of the measure, urging all other members to support the proposal as well.

"Political science is not medical science," added board member George McKenna. "It would be a mistake not to trust the medical science at this point because the alternative is to do nothing."

LAUSD, which began school on Aug. 16, is the first major school district in the United States to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its eligible students. A smaller district in Los Angeles County, Culver City Unified School District, announced in August it planned to require eligible students to be vaccinated by mid-November.

"We imagine by second semester, our middle school and high school campuses will be absolutely even safer than they are today," LAUSD school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin told CNN's John Berman on Thursday morning.

LAUSD estimates at least 150,000 doses will need to be administered, Franklin said, but Los Angeles County has the doses and the capability to undertake this effort.

The district is "trying to do everything we possibly can to keep our schools safe," Franklin said, including instituting mask-wearing, testing and upgrading schools' air filtration systems.

"Cases are on the rise and children are at risk from the delta variant in ways we didn't see last semester," she said, "and our responsibility to children and our communities is their safety and well-being."

The vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech is the only one available in the U.S. authorized for emergency use for children between 12 and 15, though the vaccine has received full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people 16 and older.

But that's not an issue for the LAUSD school board, Franklin told CNN, saying, "We understand the benefits far outweigh the risks, and so the emergency authorization really isn't weighing into our decision."

"It is about the access," she added, "and that we can provide it in this country to our children, and we want to do that as quickly as possible."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki praised the move Thursday, telling CNN, "Good for them."

But she also said it was important everyone around students were also inoculated to protect students under 12 who remain ineligible for vaccines.

CINCINNATI — Many Tri-State nursing homes are already facing staffing shortages worsened by the pandemic and a tight labor market.

Now one industry lobbyist warns that a federal vaccine mandate for nursing home workers could make staffing shortages so extreme that it forces facilities, especially ones in rural areas, to close.

“If you don't have enough staff to operate, you basically have to close down. There's no in-between,” said Pete Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, which represents hundreds of nursing homes in Ohio. “The worst-case scenario is that we have significant closures across the state, and significant dislocation of residents.”

President Joe Biden announced on Aug. 18 that all nursing homes must require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to continue receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding – which most facilities rely on to stay open. The new rule could take effect as soon as next month.

Lot Tan

The mandate brought mixed reactions from those in the industry.

The AARP applauded the news with executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond saying it “is a significant step in the fight against this pandemic.”

Locally, Laura Lamb, president and CEO of Episcopal Retirement Services, also supported the vaccine mandate as “an important step toward eradicating COVID-19.”

ERS, which operates nearly 30 retirement communities across the Tri-State, was one of the first in the area to announce in July that it would require all workers to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

But Van Runkle warns that many nursing home workers will quit if they are required to take a COVID vaccine, which could ultimately exacerbate a staffing shortage, hurt patient care, and cause facilities to close.

“We have a lot of folks who work in long-term care, whether we like that or not, who are not vaccinated,” Van Runkle said. “It’s their body and their choice.”

Van Runkle and the latest federal data show that 46 to 47 percent of Ohio nursing home health workers are not vaccinated against COVID, which he estimates at 50,000 workers.

“Who’s going to take care of people if we have a mass exodus or even a partial mass exodus of staff?” Van Runkle asked.

Van Runkle warns that facilities in rural areas with lower vaccination rates could be the most at-risk for closing. In Southwest Ohio, the counties with the lowest nursing home worker vaccination rates are Brown, Highland, Adams and Preble.

The latest federal data put Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana in the bottom 15 states with the lowest percentage of vaccinated nursing home staff per facility.

Lot Tan

Dennis Paulik, of Butler County, worries that his near 100-year-old mother, Helen, could face cold meals and delays in receiving personal care if the vaccine mandate is enforced.

She lived in isolation for months when visitors were banned from nursing homes during the height of the pandemic. He saw firsthand how staffing shortages impacted her care back then.

“If you need help getting dressed, there's nobody to help you get dressed in the morning,” he said, noting that his mother would sit for hours in a chair waiting for breakfast, often falling back asleep. She used her walker to go to the bathroom alone, despite being a fall risk, because no workers were available to help her.

Courtesy: Dennis Paulik

“You need help going to the bathroom, and nobody answers the bell,” he said.

Paulik complained and the nursing home, which he said is one of the best in the area, made improvements. But now he worries that a vaccine mandate will cause an extreme staff shortage and make life much harder for his mother – again.

“Even outside of COVID times, nursing homes have a hard time retaining staff, especially the nursing assistants who are the primary caregivers,” Paulik said. “It’s a minimum-paying job. It’s hard work. And a lot of people kind of pass through and figure out it’s not for them … so when you compound that with COVID restrictions, it’s been tough.”

An average nursing home in Ohio has 19 job openings, out of roughly 100 to 125 employees at an average facility, Van Runkle said.

“And that’s before this mandate,” Van Runkle said. “We’re already very short and then looking at this would just be disastrous.”

In the meantime, Van Runkle said, his parent organization, the American Health Care Association, is lobbying the Biden administration for federal funding to boost nursing home staff wages. He hopes any vaccine mandate includes exceptions for religious beliefs and medical conditions, while offering an alternative of more frequent COVID-19 testing for those who are opposed to taking the vaccine.

Paulik, who has been advocating for nursing home residents since the pandemic began, urges families to ask questions of nursing home administrators and stay in touch about staffing concerns or worries that a facility could close.

“Family councils may be another way of addressing the issue,” said Bob Vines, managing ombudsman at the nonprofit Pro Seniors Inc. “These are groups families have the right to form without interference to address any issue of concern to residents. We encourage all families to start one in the facility where their loved one resides.”

In the meantime, Paulik is planning a small outside picnic with a few family members to celebrate his mother’s 100^th birthday on Saturday and is hoping for the best.

“If I was an administrator and a director of nursing, I’d be really scared,” Paulik said.

DENVER — Across the country, a growing number of colleges are making it mandatory for students and staff to be fully vaccinated by the fall semester. Many colleges are saying this can help higher education get back on track.

“This past year, it wasn’t an optimal decision for students or staff for the remote learning,” said Ken McConnellogue, the vice president for communication at the University of Colorado. “We are now working towards operating at normal capacity in the fall. That’s what our staff and students want.”

McConnellogue said that the University of Colorado, a public University, will require its students to be fully vaccinated to go back to in-person learning on campus.

“We are working towards full vaccinations as one of the strategies we need to put in place before fall,” McConnellogue said. “However, just as with our measles and mumps immunization policies we are allowing our students to opt out for medical and religious reasons. There are schools around the country who were out ahead of us on this, but we didn’t so much take our lead from them as much as the state health department and local health department. Plus, we are a research institution with an academic medical campus, and we have substantial expertise in that as well. We feel like we made a very well-informed decision.”

Colleges from California to New York are now moving toward mandating students and staff to be fully vaccinated by the fall semester as well.

However, for some private colleges, like the University of Denver, that offer more flexibility for their requirements.

“As a private school, as long as we are clear about our requirements, we have the flexibility to implement them,” said Sara Watamura with DU. “For example, in the fall we required the flu vaccine and that was not something the state schools felt they were able to do in the timeline they had.”

Watamura said that DU has even been providing vaccines for their students.

“We have provided the opportunity for almost 30,000 vaccinations on campus for DU students and faculty as well as the broader community,” Watamura said.

All 50 states have at least some vaccine mandates for students attending public schools, such as polio, tetanus and whooping cough.

Of course, not all colleges and universities will require a vaccine. But for those colleges that are requiring them, experts believe this could be the key to getting campus life back to normal.