You can mark April 10th, 2023 as the end of the pandemic as far as the United States is concerned. President Joe Biden signed into law the Pandemic is Over Act on Monday, ending the federal public emergency that was first enacted in March 2020. It was scheduled to end on May 11th after being extended more than a dozen times. As a result, it will be up to the individual to cover the costs of COVID-19 tests and treatments. Millions of people could be kicked off of their Medicaid coverage, though some may be eligible for other programs.  The end of the federal public health emergency will not affect existing emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines, tests, or treatments. Closer to home, the news’ effect is unknown. Both Door and Kewaunee counties ended their public health emergencies months ago. Door County Public Health Director Ben Krawczyk said it was an unexpected announcement and many of the questions posed during Monday’s Door County Health and Human Services Committee meeting were left unanswered. Kewaunee County Public Health Nurse Cindy Kinnard says much of the programming that they stopped because of the pandemic was slowly coming back anyways. She hopes that even though COVID-19 is not going away that people take to heart what they learned during the last three years.

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher cheered the bill’s signature into law. He said the Biden Administration relied on the public health emergency to “spend massive sums of taxpayer dollars and expand the size of the federal government.” He added that now is the time to address the accountability regarding the Chinese Communist Party's coverup of the origin of the pandemic, which the Biden administration is unacceptably slow to pursue.”