he delighted us with his dancing. now, twitch s widow speaks out for the first time about her husband. her powerful message jamie foxx breaking his silence weeks after his hospitalization. plus, the new crackdown on pharmacies making their own versions of popular weight loss drugs. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening the words that have struck dread in so many american cities and workplaces, active shooter, sent s.w.a.t. teams rushing to a hospital complex in atlanta s midtown neighborhood this afternoon where they discovered the horrible aftermath of another mass shooting. a man opened fire in a waiting room hitting five people. at least one of the victims was killed all of those shot are women. within minutes of launching a massive manhunt, police released surveillance images of the suspected shooter to the public, a 24-year-old man. with the killer on the run, workers and patients were advised to take shelter as police cordoned off
but with today s ruling, the federal government can t force them to do it. lester gabe gutierrez tonight, thank you beyond the military assistance and masks, the president said he s ordering one billion test kits and that insurance companies will pay most people back for the ones you buy yourself but how practical is that tom costello has more. reporter: the latest all-out push to contain the pandemic president biden adding another 500 million rapid test kits to the 500 million already on order. a billion in total we re on track to roll out a website next week where you can order free tests shipped to your home. but earlier on today, nbc s craig melvin asked vice president harris about those kits. do you know when those are going out? shortly they re going to go out shortly. they have been ordered. i have to look at the current information. i think it s going to be by next week. but soon, absolutely soon and it is a matter of urgency for us. should we have done that soo
upheld it and we will enforce that reporter: it all comes as the biden administration scrambles to fight a frustratingly resurgent pandemic, vaccine disinformation and a highly transmissible variant. while the most recent data suggests that omicron may be leveling off in some east coast cities, overall cases and hospitalizations remain high nationwide now the president is sending in the military, the hospitals in six hard hit states, including the cleveland clinic, the university of new mexico and rhode island hospital. and he says his administration will make higher quality masks available to americans for free. i know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks. i get it but they re a really important tool to stop the spread. gabe, let me take you back to that supreme court ruling today. what is the bottom line for big businesses here? reporter: well, they can still impose vaccine mandates and testing requirements if they want to.
this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, everyone we re following several major stories tonight including for the first time charges of seditious in the u.s. capitol the leader of a far right group facing serious charges. we ll get to that in a moment but first a big blow to the white house covid strategy the u.s. supreme court today blocking enforcement of the president s vaccine and testing mandates for large employers ruling the requirements go too far. it is a decision impacting more than 80 million workers. but the court also leaving intact a separate vaccine mandate for most of the nation s health care workers the ruling is announced as the number of fully vaccinated americans reaches more than 208 million, close to 63% of the population. let s get late details now from gabe gutierrez. reporter: three days after the biden administration s covid vaccine or test mandate for private companies with more
reporter: still, public health experts stress that vaccines remain the best protection against the virus. seven-year-old theodore just got his. what is this going to mean for you it means that i can i can just like have more sleepovers and play dates, and i can feel more better going to big, giant parties. reporter: but not everyone is celebrating after the biden administration announced companies with 100 or more employees have to ensure they re vaccinated by january 4th or get tested weekly at least 27 states now say they filed or plan to join lawsuits challenging the rule. the federal government can t just unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation reporter: as for that covid pill, pfizer says it has about 50 million treatments at the ready. lester gabe gutierrez tonight. thank you. an emotional day in a georgia courtroom as the trial of three white men accused of killing ahmaud arbery, a black man whose family says he was out jogging