covid testing? chair murray, thank you so much for this important question. testing remains a critical priority for this administration. when we saw the unprecedented cases of omicron sweep into south africa and europe, we immediately reached out to of o south africa and europe, we immediately reached out to our manufacturers to understand any supply constraints they had and to evaluate their surge capacity. we have also met daily with them to make sure they have what they need from their suppliers and have used the defense production act authorities 12 times throughout this pandemic in support of testing needs, most recently in the last few weeks for two tests. we were able to unlock manufacturing and supply capacity. we continue to invest in rapid over the counter tests which are in high demand.
schools will be shuttered again tomorrow amid an escalating battle over pandemic classroom safety. omicron sweep brought a largest school district to the knees with students and staff already absent due to illness or exposure. there s a new proposal to have reintroduced remote learning district wide temporarily but the mayor warned the union we will not relent. parents are outraged and they are making their outrage known to the teachers union. this is an unprecedented level of activism. this is an untenable situation and completely utterly avoidable. with me now are ryan griffin