The US national emergency to respond
to the
COVID-19 pandemic ended Monday as
President Joe Biden signed a
bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years —
weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency,
the Associated Press reported.
اضافة اعلان
The national emergency allowed the
government to take sweeping steps to respond to the virus and support the
country's economic, health, and welfare systems.
The public health emergency — it
underpins tough immigration restrictions at the US-Mexico border — is set to
expire on May 11.
The White House issued a one-line
statement Monday saying Biden had signed the measure behind closed doors, after
having publicly opposed the resolution though not to the point of issuing a
veto.
More than 197 Democrats in the House
voted against it when the GOP-controlled chamber passed it in February. Last
month, as the measure passed the Senate by a 68–23 vote, Biden let lawmakers
know he would sign it.
More than 1.13 million people in the
US have died from
COVID-19 over the past three years, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, including 1,773 people in the week ending
April 5.
Then-President
Donald Trump's Health
and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first declared a
public health emergency on January 31, 2020, and Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national
emergency that March.
The emergencies have been repeatedly
extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and he broadened the
use of emergency powers after entering the White House.
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