Covid pub­lic health emer­gen­cies to end in May, but FDA's EUA au­thor­i­ty will con­tin­ue

The Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion an­nounced plans late yes­ter­day to ex­tend the Covid-19 na­tion­al and pub­lic health emer­gen­cies un­til May 11, de­spite two Re­pub­li­can-led bills that are call­ing for an im­me­di­ate end.

The emer­gency de­c­la­ra­tions were ex­pect­ed to be lift­ed in March and April, but the ad­min­is­tra­tion said al­low­ing for more time would hon­or pre­vi­ous com­mit­ments to give at least 60 days’ no­tice.

The state­ment, is­sued by the White House Of­fice of Man­age­ment and Bud­get, said the ad­min­is­tra­tion is against leg­is­la­tion to im­me­di­ate­ly end the pub­lic health emer­gen­cies be­cause it “would cre­ate wide-rang­ing chaos and un­cer­tain­ty through­out the health care sys­tem.”

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