President Joe Biden on Monday officially ended the Covid national health emergency that for more than three years underpinned extraordinary efforts to provide care for a country where more than a million people died from the disease.
\nThe White House said Biden signed a law passed earlier by Congress \u201cwhich terminates the national emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic.\u201d
\nThis closes lavish funding streams for Covid tests, free vaccines and other emergency measures thrown together \u2013 starting in January 2020 \u2013 to try and free the world\u2019s biggest economy from the grip of the global pandemic.
\nLess clear is the impact the end of the emergency will have on the already tense southern border with Mexico, where US authorities have long struggled to manage the flow of undocumented immigrants and large numbers of asylum seekers.
\nA rule known as Title 42 was used during the official health emergency to impose stringent restrictions on acceptance of undocumented arrivals. That is set to end, forcing the administration to adopt a different legal mechanism if it wants to avoid the politically damaging potential of new influxes.
\nA senior official in the White House told the media that the use of Title 42 \u201cis expected to expire on May 11th.\u201d
\nAlthough the US is now formally turning its back on the worldwide pandemic, the Biden administration is already working on a next generation vaccine and other measures to combat any future variant of the virus, the White House said.
\n\u201cProject NextGen will accelerate and streamline the rapid development of next generation of vaccines and treatments through public-private collaborations,\u201d according to senior administration officials.
\nA fund of at least $5 billion is available to \u201chelp catalyze scientific advancement\u201d and \u201cstay ahead of the rapidly evolving virus that causes Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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