guidelines about isolation periods from the centers for disease control and prevention that many are calling confusing for lacking clarity about whether or not tests are needed. the agency s director is facing sharp criticism from the white house and experts within the cdc itself. she addressed the issues during a rare solo news conference on friday. we re in an unprecedented time with the omicron cases rising. we are working really hard to get information to the american public. this is hard, and i am committed to continue to improve as we learn more about the science and top communicate that with all of you. meanwhile, in china, covid-19 cases are on the rise despite the nation s zero-covid strategy. on friday, the country reported nearly 100 new locally transmitted infections, almost half from shia. we ve heard disturbing accounts from people in the locked down
scenario where government officials, two years into the pandemic, may be a vector of transmission and spreading the virus in the city? well, certainly we see that covid doesn t spare anybody. that around the world a lot of public officials have had covid in the past two years and maybe in hong kong this is a chance now for some government officials to experience the infection and also in could h the control measures, the isolation for cases, and the very strict quarantine for close contacts in a quarantine facility are a little like a holiday camp. the city managed to avoid an outbreak of the delta variant. and now it seems to be struggling with omicron. do you think it can squelch this outbreak? right now we do have omicron in the community, but government is working very hard to do contact tracing, trying to keep up with the virus and even to get ahead of the virus. i m a little bit concerned that it may be very difficult to keep up with omicron because it spreads so fast, and
now, andy, if the court rejects the administration s position, it says that this is something for congress, this is something for states, how do you then get the tens of millions of holdouts who are eligible to get vaccinated? well, it s ironic that the justices are sitting in a building where you re required to be vaccinated and tested and masked to be in the building and they don t they re not willing to support osha, very simply trying to say as the 1970 statute allows them to say, if you go into a workplace that you should be entitled to the same protection as the chief justice and other justices are. so i really home that despite the tough questioning, they do win through that. there s no question on the other side that cms has the ability, that medicare has the ability to say hospital workers have to be vaccinated to take care of medicare patients. myself sand a republican counte part put out something in the
should prepare to live with covid forever. no, i don t think covid is here to stay. but having covid in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay. but covid, as we are dealing with it now, is not here to stay. the new normal doesn t have to be. we have so many more tools we re developing, and continue to develop that can contain covid and other strains of covid. the new normal is not going to be what it is now, it s going to be. now, remember, this comes at the end of a period that has seen new cases more than triple since christmas, and hospitalizations climb sharply. and it comes, of a week of confusing statements from the cdc and some damage control from the agency. also, clashes, confrontation, a lot of understandable angst over schools re-opening. also, the supreme court hearing oral arguments today on challenges to the administration s vaccine mandate for big businesses, as well as healthcare workers. there is a lot for the week.
workers are? i say that because in the latest jobs period we were expecting more jobs, only got 199,000 and six straight months it s been less than the estimate out there. that kind of stuff happens, but look at the number on the far right or those listening on radio, four and a half million, already quit the work force in the latest month. four and a half million and nothing is bringing them back. where are they going? it s a conundrum for the white house. jacqui heinrich is here with more. jacqui: good morning, neil, happy saturday. coronavirus muddled another jobs report. disease s weakest, 199,000, far short of the 400,000 forecasters expected and worse yet, the data was collected ahead of the omicron wave. meaning it could get even worse when we see the revision in a