HHS Secretary Becerra renews COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency declaration, marking two years of global pandemic response

January 14, 2022​

To help meet the needs of patients and healthcare providers in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra today renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration for the United States. The first U.S. public health emergency declaration for COVID-19 was signed in January 2020 as the global pandemic response began and has been renewed every 90 days in adherence to the law.

Renewing the public health emergency declaration in the United States provides healthcare providers and state and territory health departments with the continued flexibility to respond to the pandemic, helping save lives. These flexibilities support rapid patient care during emergencies, such as waivers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for certain requirements under section 11​35 of the Social Security Act, such as preapproval requirements and temporarily reassigning state, territorial, tribal or local staff who typically are funded by federal grants in order to respond to the emergency.

Read the latest COVID-19 public health emergency declaration renewal and learn more about public health emergency declarations.