Biden to end COVID health emergencies on May 11

President Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the national emergencies to combat the covid outbreak on May 11, a move that will restructure the federal government’s response to the pandemic nearly three years after the virus first arrived in the United States.

The declaration came as Biden opposed House Republicans’ efforts to end the emergency declarations immediately, a move the White House argued would cause chaos and confuse efforts for an orderly wind-down of the emergency status.

In 2020, the Trump administration declared both a national emergency and a public health emergency, which are set to expire on March 1 and April 11, respectively. In a notice to Congress on Monday, the White House said it wants to briefly extend both emergency declarations before terminating them May 11.

Administration officials had previously said they would give 60 days’ notice before ending the public health emergency. The federal government has renewed the public health emergency every 90 days since it was first declared.

“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 White House said in a statement Monday.

Among the most notable effects of ending the state of emergency would be the termination of Title 42, a public health measure that has limited the inflow of migrants at the border. The Biden administration has attempted to end Title 42, but that action has been held up in court.

In addition, the emergency declaration allowed the Medicaid program to provide additional funding so tens of millions of beneficiaries could retain their Medicaid payments during the pandemic. Congress has enacted a wind-down of that effort, and the Biden administration argued that ending it abruptly would cause chaos and difficulty for the recipients.