On  Jan. 11, the Biden administration renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency due to the increase in COVID-19 cases.

A recent update from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the weekly average of COVID-19 cases is up 16.2% compared to the week before. 

White House COVID-19 response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, confirmed that the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant is one of the multiple variants that caused the public health emergency to be reconsidered.

The federal government receives a variety of authorities over a certain amount of COVID-19-related areas, including data tracing and giving permission to pharmacists rather than physicians to operate many services. This includes the COVID-19 vaccine with the help of the public health emergency. 

US Health and Human Services (HSS)  Secretary Xvier Becerra renewed the declaration and stated that the public health emergency was necessary.

A statement stated the end to the emergency could come on any day and would be followed by a 60-day wind-down. The emergency could last the whole 90-day extension but a date has not been officially determined. 

The HSS Secretary will make the decision to end the covid public health emergency after professional consideration based on the most recent available data. All announcements made by other sources other than the HSS are to be determined as untrue.