The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency is scheduled for May. Last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services sent out a letter to state governors explaining what this would mean. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra affirms that addressing COVID-19 is still “a significant public health priority for the administration.”

The letter cites the government’s success of the “largest adult vaccination program in US history, with nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.” It also notes the continued decrease of COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations.

The public health emergency expedited access to funding, data, etc. The goal of ending this emergency is to transition emergency policies into new standards of care. In January, the federal government voiced its intention to end the COVID-19 public health emergency. This means the government feels we have moved out of the emergency response phase. They have renewed the emergency multiple times over the last three years. It doesn’t look like it will happen again.