While city and county officials are waiting to find out more about the local impact of President Biden’s decision to allow the public health emergency to expire in May, a county commissioner has called on officials to end local emergency declarations now.
Commissioner Sean Flowerday said he and other commissioners favor waiting until the federal emergencies expire, because throughout the pandemic they’ve tried to align their response to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The county has always tried to follow federal guidance on this, and I don’t anticipate this changing,†he said.
Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said they are trying to get further direction and a better understanding of how the end of the public health emergency will affect the city and county.
The federal action could affect the accessibility of vaccines, tests and antiviral medications.
“I don’t think all those decisions have been made at the federal level yet, so we’re monitoring it very closely to see what the impact could be for us,†she said.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird told the City Council on Monday that city departments are reviewing any funding streams and outstanding payments due from state and federal emergency allocations related to the pandemic response. They’ve also asked the Lancaster County Emergency Management Department for a recommendation on how to handle the city's emergency declaration.
The city and county declared emergencies in March 2020. The mayor used the emergency powers to acquire personal protective equipment and seek reimbursement for public safety spending related to the pandemic.
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This isn’t the first time the topic of ending the emergency declarations has come up.
At the time, the four council members who voted to shelve the proposal said it could jeopardize the city’s ability to secure federal emergency relief funding.
The situation is different than a year ago, although Flowerday said he doesn’t agree with Schulte that the pandemic is over.
An average of more than 500 people in the United States are still dying from COVID-19 each day, about twice the number of deaths per day during a bad flu season, according to the New York Times.
In Lancaster County, 201 people died of COVID in 2021, 107 in 2022 and just one person so far this year, according to the health department’s dashboard.
Schulte, a Republican, didn’t introduce a resolution at the staff meeting – the board typically introduces and votes on such measures at regular meetings – but his suggestion is similar to a federal bill called the “Pandemic Is Over Act†passed by the Republican-controlled House the day after the Biden administration announced the end to the public health emergency. The bill isn’t likely to pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Schulte said it’s time to move forward.
“It’s time to give the health department and emergency management its time back and allow them to work on more pressing issues,†he said in an email.