The president of the United States, Joe Biden, informed Congress this Monday that he will end the national emergency declarations to combat the Covid-19 pandemic on May 11, the Associated Press (AP) agency reported.
The measure to end national and public health emergency declarations will formally restructure the federal response to Covid-19, treating the virus as an endemic public health threat that can be handled by normal agency authorities.
Removing most of the federal money to help fight the pandemic would also remove vaccine and treatment development from the direct management of the federal government, the AP reported.
This decision by Biden is presented as a statement of opposition to the resolutions introduced this week by Republicans in the House of Representatives to end the state of emergency immediately.
Republicans in the lower house of Congress are also preparing to launch investigations into the federal government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then-President Donald Trump declared the Covid-19 pandemic a national emergency for the first time on March 13, 2020, and these declarations have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021 and are expected to end in the next months.
The White House has indicated that Biden intends to finalize these two statements on May 11.
“An abrupt end to emergency declarations would create chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system, for states, hospitals and doctors’ offices, and most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,” the Office of Management and Budget said. (OMB). .in the acronym in English) in a statement.
The Joe Biden-led administration had already considered ending the emergency last year, but withdrew over concerns about potential spikes in cases in the winter.
A senior government official said that the three months until the end of the measures will mark a transition period in which the government will “begin the process of smooth operational reduction of the flexibilities allowed by emergency declarations,” AP stressed.
More than 1.1 million people have died in the US from covid-19 since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Source: TSF
