President Joe Biden declared the Covid national health emergency, which had been in effect for more than three years and had supported exceptional efforts to offer care in a country where more than a million people have perished from the disease.
According to the White House, Biden signed legislation enacted earlier by Congress that “terminates the national emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
This ends extravagant funding sources for Covid tests, free vaccines, and other emergency measures pieced together to try to liberate the world’s largest economy from the grip of the global epidemic, beginning in January 2020.
The impact of the emergency’s termination on the already tense southern border with Mexico, where US officials have long battled to handle the flow of undocumented immigrants and large numbers of asylum seekers, is less obvious.
During the declared health emergency, a rule known as Title 42 was invoked to place harsh restrictions on the admittance of undocumented newcomers.
This is about to change, compelling the administration to find a new legal procedure if it wants to avoid the potentially catastrophic political consequences of additional influxes.
According to a senior White House official, the use of Title 42 “is expected to expire on May 11th.”
Although the United States has publicly abandoned the global pandemic, the Biden administration is already working on a next-generation vaccine and other steps to tackle any future strain of the virus, according to the White House.
