UVA Health prepared for end of COVID Emergency Declaration
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- After almost three years of COVID-19 emergency measures, the Biden administration has announced it will end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11.
The measures have been continuously extended ever since they were put in place by former-President Donald Trump in 2020. They've allowed Americans to receive free tests, vaccines, and other treatments, but ending the emergency will effectively end these privileges.
In a statement, the White House gave a heads-up to health systems around the country saying, "An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system."
Locally, experts at the University of Virginia Health System say they are ready for its end.
"UVA has been preparing all along and so we've made our adjustments back to near normal. So, I think we will be well poised to come out of the public health emergency," said Wendy Horton, UVA Medical Center’s CEO.
"There is an end in sight, that we are moving from that pandemic to that endemic state," said Dr. Reid Adams with surgical oncology at UVA Health.
UVA Health doctors say it is also a symbolic gesture, acknowledging COVID-19 was a pandemic that caused serious consequences but that there is now hope that its end is approaching.