The White House is planning to end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency on May 11. The declarations have been extended multiple times since enacted by the Trump administration in 2020.
Ending the emergency declaration could have implications for funding for tests and vaccines as well as impact other pandemic-related policies. Congress has already begun pushing back on efforts to extend programs that had been tied to the pandemic.
The plan from the White House came in a statement opposing two House bills that would end the emergency declarations sooner.
"An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors' offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans," the statement says, calling the bills a "grave disservice to the American people." [Copyright 2023 NPR]
