​​COVID Public Health Emergency Declaration Extended Until October

On July 15th, 2022 the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration extended the COVID public health emergency declaration. It has been extended an additional three months and will last at least to October 13th, 2022. The COVID public health emergency declaration was put in place when the COVID virus started to emerge in January 2020. There are several reasons why the declaration has been extended.

Firstly, COVID rates have been increasing recently due to the omicron subvarient BA.5. Some believe that it is the worst version of omicron yet because it is highly transmittable even for people with prior immunity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), currently, there is an average of 126,018 new COVID cases daily, 6,184 daily COVID hospital admissions, and 353 COVID deaths daily 2. These numbers are higher than they have been in months and are likely underestimated because of readily available at-home COVID testing kits. It is predicted that hospitalizations will increase during the next month.

Another reason the COVID public health emergency declaration was extended is to provide additional COVID testing, vaccine, telehealth, and insurance benefits. The declaration allows free COVID testing and vaccines which will most likely cost people money once it ends. It has also provided more availability and coverage of telehealth services which were more limited before the pandemic. There are states that are not discharging people from Medicaid that normally would be because they are receiving more federal funding due to the declaration. Up to 14 million people may lose Medicaid benefits once the declaration ends. It is likely any COVID-related benefits that people have been receiving will stop once the declaration has ended.

According to a quote from a Biden administration official in a CNN article, “The Public Health Emergency declaration continues to provide us with tools and authorities needed to respond to the highly transmissible COVID-19 subvariants that are currently circulating around the country…The PHE provides essential capabilities and flexibilities to hospitals to better care for patients, particularly if we were to see a significant increase in hospitalizations in the coming weeks…Without the PHE in place, we would be limited in our ability to provide broad and equitable access to lifesaving treatments through our Test to Treat initiative, for example, which relies on flexibility for telehealth and operations…Not renewing the PHE would leave us with fewer tools to respond and mean more Americans would get severely ill and end up in the hospital” 1.

As of right now the COVID public health emergency declaration will last until at least October 13th, 2022. The end date will be determined by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. They will be giving at least a 60-day notice before any changes are made to the declaration.

Resources

1. McPhillips, D. (2022, July 15). Covid-19 public health emergency extended in the US. CNN. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/15/health/covid-public-health-emergency-extended/index.html
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). CDC Covid Data tracker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

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