President Joe Biden’s administration announced Thursday that the COVID-19 public health emergency will continue until January 11, 2023, at a time when cases are expected to increase over the winter.
The decision was made known in a month when the pandemic has already disappeared from the minds of many people. Daily deaths and infections are decreasing and people, many without face masks, are returning to school, work and shops as they once were.
The health emergency, initially declared in January 2020 and renewed every 90 days, has radically changed the way health services are provided.
The statement allowed for the urgent authorization of vaccines, diagnostic tests and treatments against COVID-19 free of charge. Extended coverage of the Medicaid program to millions of people, many of whom may lose it once the emergency is over. It temporarily opened up access to telemedicine for Medicare beneficiaries, allowing doctors to charge the same rates for those visits and encouraging healthcare networks to adopt telemedicine technology.
Republicans have been pushing the government to end the health emergency since the beginning of this year. Biden, for his part, has asked Congress to provide additional billions of dollars to help pay for coronavirus vaccines and diagnostic tests. The federal government stopped sending free tests in the mail last month, saying it ran out of funds for it.
Public health officials are encouraging people aged 5 and over to receive their booster dose of the vaccine, along with the flu, this fall, before COVID-19 cases are expected to increase and there is a strong flu season. As of last weekend, about 13 million people have received the updated booster, which fights the omicron variant, said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
The federal government says it will issue 60 days notice before ending the health emergency.
