WASHINGTON: The US national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic that underpinned extraordinary efforts to provide care for a country where more than a million people died from the contagious disease ended on Monday following a law signed by Biden that was passed by Congress earlier.
In a one-lined statement, the White House said- Biden had signed the measure behind closed doors, after having publicly opposed the resolution though not to the point of issuing a veto. When cleared in February, more than 197 Democrats in the House voted against it. Last month, as the measure passed the Senate by a 68-23 vote, Biden let lawmakers know he would sign it.
The Bipartisan congressional resolution ended the three years of lavish funding for Covid tests, free vaccines, and other emergency measures thrown together to helm the world’s largest economy through the pandemic. Some of the emergency measures have already been successfully wound down, while others are still being phased out, said officials in the know.
With this, the rule of Title 42 used during the official health emergency to impose stringent restrictions on the acceptance of undocumented arrivals comes to an end.
More than 1.13 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 over the last three years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 1,773 people in the week ending April 5.