The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will extend the existing Covid public-health emergency for another 90 days in response to the latest variant of the virus.
The announcement, which marks the twelfth time the state of emergency has been extended since it was first implemented by President Trump in 2020, preserves a suite of executive-branch powers that have been used to implement longstanding progressive policy goals, such as increases to Medicaid benefits.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Xavier Becerra released a brief note Wednesday confirming the decision.
“As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary…[and] pursuant to the authority vested in me under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, do hereby renew…a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020.”
The announcement contradicts earlier statements made by President Joe Biden. Asked during a 60 Minutes segment in September 2022 what the status of the pandemic was, Biden responded: “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it.”
However, since then, daily cases have begun ramping up in the United States, with an average of 67,000 infections and nearly 400 deaths daily, Reuters reports.
The emergence of the latest omicron variant, XBB.1.5, has been called the “most transmissible” coronavirus offshoot yet by the World Health Organization (WHO). The XBB.1.5 variant went from representing barely 2 percent of American cases at the start of December 2022, to over a quarter of cases by the first week of January 2023.
“The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency remains in effect, and as HHS committed to earlier, we will provide a 60-day notice to states before any possible termination or expiration,” a spokesperson for HHS told CNBC.
The Biden administration has pledged to inform health providers 60 days in advance when the public health emergency will be finally lifted.