The Department of Health and Human Services has extended the public health emergency on COVID-19 for another 90 days amid concerns about a fast-moving variant.
Republicans have pushed the administration to end the designation, pointing to President Biden’s own claim that the pandemic is over. They say it is no longer necessary as the U.S. learns to live with the coronavirus.
The administration also signaled it was getting ready to wind down the emergency, which allows Americans to get certain vaccines and treatment for free and relaxes Medicaid eligibility rules in the states.
Still, Health and Human Services has continued to renew the emergency designation every 90 days.
This week’s decision to extend the emergency coincides with the spread of XBB.1.5, the most transmissible variant of the virus to date. It accounts for 7 in 10 cases in the Northeast and about a quarter of cases nationwide.
Nearly 50,000 people are hospitalized for COVID-19, or nearly twice the level in mid-fall. However, the current winter surge in severe disease is far milder than the ones in 2021 and 2022, as Americans enjoy built-up immunity from prior infection and shots and make use of treatments such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid.
The most recent extension was not a surprise, since Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra plans to give states 60 days of notice before he allows the designation to expire.
Senior Republicans chided the administration this week for extending the emergency, saying it is time to put the virus on equal footing with other diseases.
“Some recent reporting has suggested that the administration will move to end the PHE in the coming months, however, HHS has just notified Congress that the PHE will be extended until April,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers said. “This is unacceptable. There is no excuse for further delay and there should be no further extension of the PHE.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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