The United States will keep in place the public health emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to still receive free tests, vaccines and treatments, two Biden administration officials said on Friday.
The possibility of a winter surge in COVID-19 cases and the need for more time to transition out of the public health emergency to a private market were two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the emergency status in January, one of the officials said.
"We may be in the middle of one in January," he said. "That is not the moment you want to pull down the public health emergency." The officials said a lot of work remained to be done for the transition out of the public health emergency. "The biggest motivation from a policy perspective is ensuring a smooth transition to the commercial market and the challenge of unraveling the multiple protections that have been put in place," said Dr. Jen Kates, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Extending the PHE provides more time to manage that."
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