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Public Health Emergency Expires - State’s COVID-19 Recovery and Demobilization Plans

Post Date:05/11/2023 4:46 PM

Press Release

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

City of Stamford

 

Thursday, May 11, 2023

 

Contact:

Lauren Meyer

203-977-5115

LMeyer@stamfordct.gov

 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health and City of Stamford Department of Health Announce the State’s COVID-19 Recovery and Demobilization Plans as Public Health Emergency Ends

STAMFORD, CT – Today, May 11, 2023, the national Public Health Emergency, which was declared in 2020, expires. Under U.S. law, the President can declare a national emergency in response to a disaster or crisis. When the nationally declared emergency ends, those powers are lifted, and policies that the President enacted using emergency powers expire. Governor Ned Lamont’s declaration of a Public Health Emergency under Connecticut law will end today as well.

“I want to thank the City of Stamford Health Department, healthcare workers, and first responders for their work over the past three years to promote public health and safety in our community,” said Mayor Caroline Simmons. “We will continue to monitor any changing trends with the COVID-19 virus and follow state and federal guidelines when needed.”

“The May 11 ending of the Public Health Emergency does not mean the end of the COVID-19 virus,” said Jody Bishop-Pullan, Stamford Director of Health and Human Services. “We still have the best tools available to stay healthy and that’s why as a City, we have made so much progress from where we were three years ago. Although the public health emergency is ending, Stamford residents should still get vaccinated, get the updated booster, use at-home tests, stay home when they’re sick, and wear a high-quality mask when respiratory viruses are circulating at high levels in our community.”

“We have the necessary tools to continue to protect ourselves and live with this virus,” added DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD. “We hope that COVID-19 will follow the trajectory of other seasonal illnesses and certainly expect to once again ramp up our efforts during respiratory disease season which typically runs from October through April.”

Commissioner Juthani added that ongoing communications will be posted at ct.gov/dph and that residents should visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website for the most up-to-date COVID-19 guidance. She also announced the details of the State’s next steps in response to the end of the Public Health Emergency which include:

COVID-19 Testing

  • State supported COVID-19 testing at four Community Health Centers will end on June 30, 2023.
  • Self-test kits are still available from the federal government at www.covid.gov or can be purchased at pharmacies and other retail outlets.
  • The Stamford Department of Health and Human Services will have a limited number of home test kits after June 30th.

COVID-19 Vaccines

  • The DPH mobile clinics officially end on June 30, 2023. Organizations interested in making an appointment for updated COVID-19 vaccines through the mobile clinics can do so before June 19, 2023, via ct.gov/coronavirus.
  • For Connecticut residents who are homebound, the homebound COVID-19 vaccination program is available through the Stamford Department of Health and Human Services by calling (203)-977-4378.
  • The federal government will continue to distribute vaccine to vaccine providers such as retail pharmacies and health care providers, including our public health community clinic located at 137 Henry Street. After the public health emergency ends, the federal government will continue to distribute all available vaccines in their inventory, free to U.S. residents, until that inventory is depleted or expires.
  • Once the federal government exhausts its inventory of COVID-19 vaccines, they will be made available commercially like other vaccines, such as flu vaccines, through an individual’s private insurance plan; through publicly funded programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Vaccines for Children program; or directly by consumers.

COVID-19 Therapeutics

  • Access to treatments such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio will still be available from providers and retail pharmacies.

Long-Term Care

  • DPH will continue to support long-term care facilities in helping to identify and limit any COVID-19 outbreaks. DPH is committed to offering education and training for outbreak control which can affect the state’s most vulnerable citizens.

Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC)

  • WIC program waivers will end 90 days after the Public Health Emergency ends (Aug. 9, 2023). More updates will follow.

Disease Surveillance and Reporting

  • DPH will issue its last COVID-19 report for the 2022-23 respiratory viral disease season on the Open Data Portal on June 1, 2023.

COVID-19 public data reporting will resume on Oct. 5, 2023, and continue through the winter months, as part of DPH’s respiratory surveillance reporting program. This new COVID-19 report will include data that are relevant to current COVID-19 disease activity and trends and integrate COVID-19 with viral respiratory surveillance reporting, including influenza.

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