Two officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Friday that the US would maintain a public health emergency over the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to be tested and receive free vaccines and treatments until at least in April next year.
One of the officials said the prospect of an increase in coronavirus infections in winter and the need for more time before the state of public health emergency passed were the two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the state of emergency in January .
The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been renewed every three months since then. But in August the government began signaling that it planned to let it expire in January.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has promised to give states 60 days notice before allowing the state of emergency, which expires on Friday, if it doesn’t plan to renew it again in January. The second official said the ministry failed to provide such notification.
One of the officials said health experts believe it is likely an increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States this winter.
“We could see an increase in mid-January… This is not the time we want to end the public health emergency,” he added.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said daily infections with the Corona virus had declined to an average of more than 41,284 as of Nov. 9, but 335 people are dying every day from it.
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said in an Oct. 21 analysis that daily infections in the United States are expected to slowly climb to nearly 70,000 by February, and deaths are expected to be around the same number. same level.
