President Joe Biden on Monday announced that the twin national emergencies for addressing Covid-19 will be put to an end on May 11, as the world has mostly returned closer to normalcy after almost three years since the measures were first declared.
The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would mean the formal restructuring of the federal coronavirus response to consider the virus as an endemic threat that can be tackled through agencies’ normal authorities.
The announcement comes after several elements of the emergencies that supported millions of Americans during the pandemic were brought to an end by lawmakers. Apart from bringing down the federal Covid-19 relief money, the US would also move away from the development of vaccines and treatments from the direct management of the federal government.
The move comes amid resolutions being brought to the floor this week by House Republicans over an immediate end to the emergency. House Republicans are considering launching investigations on the federal government’s response to Covid-19.
Lawmakers have opposed for months the Biden administration’s request to extend more funds for free Covid vaccines and testing. The $1.7 trillion spending package cleared last year and signed into law by Biden will end the rule that barred states from kicking people off Medicaid. This may prompt millions of people to lose their coverage after April 1.
For the first time, former President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020, and later the Covid-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency that March. The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and are set to expire in the coming months. The White House said Biden plans to extend them both briefly to end on May 11.