Earlier this week, Governor Newsom
announced the COVID-19 state of emergency will end on
February 28, 2023, marking nearly three years since the state of
emergency was initially proclaimed on March 4, 2020. According to
the announcement, this timeline is intended to provide the health
care system needed flexibility to handle any potential surge that
may occur after the holidays in January and February, in addition
to providing state and local partners time to prepare for this
phaseout.
The state of emergency has provided for workforce and operational
flexibilities, various statutory and regulatory waivers, and
liability immunities. According to state officials, more than 550
provisions from the executive orders issued under the state of
emergency
are no longer in effect, with the remaining 27
provisions currently in effect to end on February 28.
To maintain California’s COVID-19 laboratory testing and
therapeutics treatment capacity, the Newsom Administration will
be seeking two statutory changes immediately upon the
Legislature’s return: 1) The continued ability of nurses to
dispense COVID-19 therapeutics; and 2) The continued ability of
laboratory workers to solely process COVID-19 tests.
With this announcement, California will no longer be aligned with
the federal public health emergency timeline, which was recently
extended by U.S. HHS Secretary Becerra –
as reported in a prior CSAC article – for an additional 90
days, placing the federal expiration around January 11, 2023,
although the Secretary may terminate the declaration whenever he
determines that the emergency has ceased to exist. Secretary
Becerra has previously promised to provide 60 days’ notice before
ending the emergency.
