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US Extends Covid Public-Health Emergency, Maintaining Access to Care

X-ray technicians take a chest x-ray of a Covid-19 patient on the Intensive Care Unit floor at a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

X-ray technicians take a chest x-ray of a Covid-19 patient on the Intensive Care Unit floor at a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

Photographer: Allison Dinner/Bloomberg
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The US government again extended the Covid-19 public health emergency, maintaining measures that have expanded access to health care for millions of Americans since the outbreak began in 2020. 

The Department of Health and Human Services has repeatedly renewed the emergency designation in 90-day increments since it was originally declared by the Trump administration in January 2020. On Wednesday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the emergency through mid-April, a move some health experts anticipate could be the last renewal.