U.S. extends pandemic public health emergency. Here’s what that means to you. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
October 19, 2022
In an interview last month on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” President Joe Biden said that the COVID-19 pandemic was “over.”
However, the federal government on Oct. 14 renewed the COVID public health emergency for at least another 90 days. The emergency was first declared on Jan. 30, 2020.
The renewal was not unexpected as it has been extended for a period of 90 days more than 10 times.
Elizabeth Goodsitt, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, or DHS, said before the renewal that the state would get a 60-day notice by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if the public health emergency was not extended
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The continued existence of the public health emergency has real effects on benefits administered by DHS. Throughout the pandemic, BadgerCare Plus and Wisconsin Medicaid members have not had to update information that may change their benefit levels. Once the federal public health emergency ends, this is expected to change.
FoodShare members have received “emergency allotments” of at least $95 in FoodShare credit per month in part because of the existence of a COVID-19 public health emergency declared by the state of Wisconsin, not the federal government.
If the public health emergency had not been extended, the allotments would have ended Oct. 14.
Health experts still recommend COVID-19 vaccines and boosters as they decrease the chances for severe symptoms if you contract the virus.