Covid-19 public health emergency extended in the US

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Source: WSIL TV/CNN-Wire

The Biden administration on Friday extended the Covid-19 public health emergency for another three months. US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra officially renewed the declaration, extending it through October 13, 2022. The emergency declaration has been in place since January 2020, and the latest renewal comes as the Omicron offshoot BA.5, the most contagious variant yet, continues to stake its claim in the US.

Daily case rates, though vastly undercounted, are the highest they've been in months, as are Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Data published this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that more than half of the country's population lives in a county with a "high Covid-19 Community Level," where the health care system is at risk of becoming overburdened and universal indoor masking is recommended.

"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," a Biden administration official told CNN. "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." Indeed, ensemble forecasts from the CDC published this week do predict that hospitalizations in the US will rise over the next month.

It's the first time in weeks that the forecasts have predicted an increase in hospitalizations, instead of a stable outlook. "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," the official said. "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."

Read more: https://www.wsiltv.com/coronavirus/covid-19-public-health-emergency-extended-in-the-us/article_e55745b9-8ef3-5900-b74c-e4353fb616e6.html