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COVID-19 emergency declarations lifted in St. Louis city, county

The emergency declarations were lifted Friday due to the dramatic decline in COVID-19 cases and the wide availability of vaccines.
Credit: UPI
Visitors to the Gateway Arch leave the National Monument wearing a mask in St. Louis on Monday, June 6, 2022. National Park officials are once again requiring visitors to mask up, citing the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the St. Louis area. The St. Louis area saw over 500 people contracting COVID-19 during the last week of May. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

ST. LOUIS — Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County on Friday morning lifted their declarations that declared the virus a public health emergency.

The declarations, which prioritized combating COVID-19 and allowed the local governments to invest and incur expenses deemed necessary to limit its spread, were officially lifted at 9 a.m. Friday.

In a joint statement from St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, the leaders attributed the decision to lift the declarations to the dramatic decrease in daily COVID-19 case numbers, the wide availability of vaccines and the fact that area hospitals are better equipped to handle the virus.

As of Friday, the City of St. Louis reported 63.8% of its residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 68.4% of St. Louis County residents were fully vaccinated.

The St. Louis County Department of Public Health, the St. Louis Department of Health and the region's hospital systems were consulted when making the decision, according to the statement.

President Joe Biden announced earlier this year that he plans to lift the nationwide public health emergency declaration on May 11.

With COVID-19 no longer considered a public health emergency, a few things will change, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Some of the changes include:

  • Certain Medicare and Medicaid waivers and flexibility for health care providers will end.
  • Insurance coverage for COVID-19 testing and the cost of vaccines will change.
  • Laboratory results and immunization data will no longer be required to be reported to HHS.
  • The ability of health care providers to prescribe certain controlled substances via telehealth will be affected.

The World Health Organization said it would continue to label the coronavirus a global health emergency after an advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing a point where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths. WHO committee members in January warned that the public is increasingly facing "pandemic fatigue" and increasingly ignoring health measures like masking and social-distancing.

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