Status: 01/31/2023 08:59 a.m
For more than three years, both a national emergency and a health emergency have been in force in the United States due to the corona pandemic. Both should end on May 11th. Republicans had called for an earlier end.
US President Joe Biden wants to lift far-reaching corona emergency regulations in May. They were introduced in 2020 by then US President Donald Trump in response to the pandemic and extended several times by Biden. The administration informed the US Congress in Washington that Biden would briefly extend both the national emergency and the public health emergency one last time and then end on May 11th.
Government relinquishes powers
The emergency regulations enable the US government, for example, to provide the states with additional funds to protect the health of the population and to coordinate crisis management. For example, help for medication and insurance against Covid-19 became possible. With the lifting of the emergency regulations, the US government is returning its powers; most aid payments also end then.
According to the White House, the time until May should now be used for an orderly transition. The opposition Republicans had recently pushed for an earlier phase-out, partly because the emergency rules cost the state a lot of money. They wanted the national emergency to end on March 1st and the public health emergency on April 11th.
The Biden administration rejected this: “An abrupt end to the declaration of a state of emergency would lead to far-reaching chaos and insecurity throughout the health system – for the states, for hospitals and doctor’s offices and, most importantly, for millions of Americans,” it said Reason.