The Biden administration last Monday prolonged the COVID-19 public health emergency to January 11, 2023, citing the possibility of a winter spike in cases.
The Trump administration originally proclaimed a COVID public health emergency in January 2020, and it has since been updated every ninety days.
The decree made improvements to the healthcare system possible, including the free provision of COVID vaccines and medications. Millions of Americans now qualify for Medicaid coverage, new telemedicine services were approved, and hospitals now have more options for handling patient peaks.
According to statistics, COVID is getting better, with fewer cases, fatalities, and hospitalizations. President Biden declared on “60 Minutes” about a month ago that “the pandemic is finished.”
Health experts point out that COVID rates increased throughout the winter in the previous two years and warn that it might do so again.
In a virtual interview for the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, White House medical advisor Anthony Fauci, MD, said, “We were headed in the right way in the summer of 2021, then along came Delta.” Then Omicron appeared in the winter. We’ve had sublineages of Omicron ever since.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays, when families get together, the administration asked Americans to acquire COVID boosters.
Republicans have pressed Biden to put a stop to the public health emergency, and Congress has rejected Biden’s attempts to increase funding for COVID. Due to a funding shortage, the delivery of free at-home examinations was stopped last month.
The administration has stated that it will end the public health emergency with 60 days’ notice.
More than 1 million COVID-related deaths have been reported in the United States, more than any other country, with almost 97 million confirmed COVID cases.
