California to end the COVID state of

California to end the COVID state of emergency

The era of the pandemic was no joke. Many people lost their jobs, many more lost their loved one to the virus. Almost three years after, many peoople seem to have moved on and Californians are now ready to burry the old problems away.

In a statement released by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California’s Covid-19 state of emergency will end Feb28, 2023. The move by the California executive comes amid new variants of the virus spur concerns of a high likelihood of there being another deadly winter surge all across the country. In addition to that, the positivity rate of the virus in California has plateaued following a newarly three month decline. State data confirms that the virus has killed more than 95,000 Californians.

According to the Governor’s office, the timeline to the termination date of the Covid-19 state of emergency gives the healthcare system the much needed flexibility to be able to handle any surge that might occur during the winter months plus will also provide the state and local partners the time needed to prepare for the phaseout and also set themselves up for success afterwords. It’s also important to mention that this move will have little practical impact on californians as most of the pandemic-related orders the governor has issued have mostly been lifted. At the same time, it will have little impact on public health orders including the pending nationwide vaccine mandate for schoolchildren that will take effect next summer.

The move does however signal an end for some of the most restrictive elements of the pandemic since it means dissolving newsom’s authority to alter or een in some cases change the laws to make it easier for the government to quickly respond to public health crisis. “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been guided by the science and data – moving quickly and strategically to save lives. The State of Emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and

we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it,” said Governor Newsom. “With the operational preparedness that we’ve built up and the measures that we’ll continue to employ moving forward, California is ready to phase out this tool.”

The state of emergency was declared on March 4, 2020 at a time when the state had only 53 confirmed cases of virus. Ever since, the governor has used the authority vested on him undere the emergency declaration to issue almost 600 pandemic related orders. While some were relatively small, some had life changing like the stay-at-home order that caused millions of people to lose their jobs.

“It is past time to end the State of Emergency and focus on the enormous hardships Californians are facing in their daily lives: soaring gas and grocery prices, surging crime, and a homelessness problem that gets worse by the day,” said Republican Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, who was one of the two lawmakers to challenge Newsom in court. Of all the 596 pandemic related orders Newsom gave, only 27 are in effect according to the Governor’s office and all of them will be gone once the emergency declaration has been lifted. However, the Governor has siad that he will ask the California Legislature to make two of them permanent. One of them allows nurses to order and dispense COVID-19 medication and another would let the lab workers solely process coronavirus tests.

“California’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has prepared us for whatever comes next. As we move into this next phase, the infrastructure and processes we’ve invested in and built up will provide us the tools to manage any ups and downs in the future,” said Secretary of the California

Health & Human Services Agency, Dr.

Mark Ghaly. “While the threat of this virus is still real, our preparedness and collective work have helped turn this once crisis emergency into a manageable situation.”