The US House of Representatives passed a bill to immediately end the Covid-19 public health emergency, although the White House announced that the state would end in May.
The bill titled “Pandemic Ended” was passed on January 31 in the US House of Representatives with 220 votes in favor of Republicans, while 210 Democrats voted against. The two-page bill declares a public health emergency due to Covid-19 that will end immediately on the date the law goes into effect.
However, the bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate to become law, given that Democrats control the body.
The move by the US House of Representatives comes less than a day after the administration of President Joe Biden announced that the state of emergency over Covid-19 would end on May 11. The White House added that the nationwide pandemic emergency will also end on this date.
Republican leader in the US House of Representatives Steve Scalise (centre) speaks during a meeting on Capitol Hill on January 31. Photo: AFP.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) explained that the immediate lifting of the Covid-19 emergency, as the Republican bill passed, would “significantly affect the health care system”. countries work together in government”.
According to OMB, one of the things that worries them most is that declaring an immediate end to the Covid-19 emergency will make the Title 42 policy dating back to Donald Trump also lapse. This policy allows border forces to refuse to accept the flow of asylum seekers at the border, citing public health risks related to Covid-19.
However, Republican senators immediately countered, saying that the public health emergency should end immediately, citing President Biden’s comments from September 2022 that “the pandemic has passed.” via”. The President of the White House has retracted this statement.
The World Health Organization (WHO) previously said that the emergency phase of the pandemic was not over, pointing out that the death toll was still increasing, and the global response to the crisis was still difficult.
The first cases of nCoV infection were recorded in China in December 2019, then spread globally. The US is one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19 with more than 100 million infections and more than 1.1 million deaths. The country declared a public health emergency due to Covid-19 from the beginning of 2020 and has repeatedly extended it so far.
Ngoc Anh (Theo Hill)