Here’s What Changes With the End of the US Covid Emergency

The US government has declared an official end to the country’s Covid-19 crisis. For months, President Joe Biden has asserted that the pandemic is “over.” But until May 11, the momentous public health emergency declaration of January 2020 had remained in place, expanding access to health care for millions of people. Its unwinding came just days after the World Health Organization ended its own emergency declaration, and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky announced plans to step down, saying the nation had left behind “the dark days of the pandemic.” A policy that increased health coverage for low-income people had already been discontinued. Now, more changes are coming. They will impact how Americans access Covid vaccines, tests and treatments; how telehealth care is delivered; and how migrants seek asylum at the US border.

Covid had killed more than 1.1 million people in the US as of early May. About 160 people were dying each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with about 3,400 at the peak in January 2021.