COVID19 Will No Longer Be A Public Health Emergency. What Does That Mean?

© Illustration by Alex Kochan, Deseret News

The Biden administration announced Monday that the US public health emergency related to the COVID-19 virus will end on May 11 and will be replaced by a national COVID-19 preparedness plan to lift the country out of the emergency. . .

The status has been updated every 90 days since the outbreak began and former President Donald Trump declared a public health emergency in 2020, the New York Times reported. President Joe Biden renewed it in January, but faced pushback from House Republicans who called for an immediate end to the emergency.

"There is no ongoing COVID-19 emergency that justifies continuing to declare a national emergency," said Arizona Rep. Paul A. Mail: "Cases have declined and most Americans are returning to a pre-pandemic normal This doesn't look like a country in a state of national emergency."

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But with the emergency came policies and regulations that made things like free tests, vaccines, and the COVID-19 drug Paxlovid available to everyone in the United States. The White House expressed concern about the impact of the sudden change, which would remove those benefits.

"An abrupt end to emergency declarations would create widespread chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system, for states, hospitals and doctors' offices, and most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans," the House said. White in a statement. statement. . statement

To soften the blow to the civilian population, Congress has extended benefits through Medicare to cover telehealth visits and emergency use of Paxlovid through 2024, the Washington Post reports. Hospitals must also adjust their payment and bed assignment procedures with more flexibility under the emergency declaration.

Jennifer Cates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The New York Times that while the plan would give health care workers time to transition, she worried about how it would protect Americans from the virus.

"To the extent that it can make people fall off overnight, it can cause some difficulties," he said.

Although about 69 percent of the US population is vaccinated, more than 500 people in the US still die from the virus every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Ending the COVID-19 public health emergency