Two officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States will maintain a public health emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to get tested and receive vaccines and treatments for free until at least April next year.
One of the officials said the prospect of an increase in coronavirus infections in the winter and the need for more time before moving on from the state of public health emergency were the two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the state of emergency in January.
The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been renewed every three months since then. But in August the government began signaling that it planned to allow it to expire in January.
The US Department of Health and Human Services promised to give states 60 days notice before allowing the state of emergency, which would expire Friday, if it did not plan to renew it again in January. The second official said the ministry did not provide such a notification.
One of the officials said that health experts believe an increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States is likely this winter.
“We may see an increase in mid-January… This is not the moment when we want to end the public health emergency,” he added.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that daily infections with the Corona virus decreased to an average of more than 41,284 as of November 9, but 335 people die every day because of it.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said in an Oct. 21 analysis that daily infections in the United States are expected to slowly rise to nearly 70,000 by February, and deaths are expected at about the same level.