The US national emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic ended on Monday as US President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years — weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency.
The national emergency allowed the government to take sweeping steps to respond to the virus and support the country’s economic, health and welfare systems. Some of the emergency measures have already been successfully wound down, while others are still being phased out. The public health emergency, which underpins tough immigration restrictions at the US-Mexico border, is set to expire on May 11.
The White House on Monday issued a one-line statement saying that Biden had signed the measure behind closed doors, after having publicly opposed the resolution, although not to the point of issuing a veto. More than 197 Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted against it when the Republican-controlled chamber passed it in February.
Photo: Reuters
Last month, as the measure passed the US Senate by a 68-23 vote, Biden let lawmakers know he would sign it.
The administration said once it became clear that the US Congress was moving to speed up the end of the national emergency it worked to expedite agency preparations for a return to normal procedures.
As part of the changes, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s COVID-19 mortgage forbearance program is set to end at the end of May and the US Department of Veterans Affairs is again requiring in-home visits to determine eligibility for caregiver assistance.
Legislators last year did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, enabling healthcare systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer.
More than 1.13 million people in the US have died from COVID-19 over the past three years, including 1,773 people in the week ending on Wednesday last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Then-US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar first declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, and then-US president Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency that March.
The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and he broadened the use of emergency powers after entering the White House.
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