Biden's plan for ending the emergency declaration for COVID-19 signals a pivotal point in the pandemic – 4 questions answered

COVID-19 emergency status prompted coordinated vaccination efforts by health care providers, paramedics, volunteers and others. Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

President Joe Biden announced on Jan. 30, 2023, that he intends to end both the national emergency and the public health emergency declarations related to COVID-19 on May 11, 2023.

Biden’s announcement came on the same day that the World Health Organization said it still considers the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, a status that is reassessed every three months. The WHO’s advisory committee noted that although the pandemic is at a turning point, “COVID-19 remains a dangerous infectious disease with the capacity to cause substantial damage to health and health systems.”