On January 30, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that the administration plans to extend the Covid-19 national emergency (currently set to expire on March 1) and the coronavirus public health emergency (“PHE”, due to end on April 11) to May 11, and then end both on that date. It’s unclear what effect this action will have on CDC orders directing the expulsion of migrants at the Southwest border, issued pursuant to Title 42 of the U.S. Code in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, because “Title 42” has taken on a life of its own. In any event, Biden’s facing a post-Title 42 border tsunami, and needs to save himself and his party from getting wiped out in 2024.
A Covid-19 Timeline. Covid-19 was initially detected in China in December 2019, and by January 30, 2020, had become enough of a threat to prompt the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”.
The next day, then- Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar issued a determination under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act that a PHE related to the “2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)” had existed since January 27, due to the presence of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the United States.
PHEs are good for 90 days, and this one has been extended every 90 days since it was initially issued, most recently on January 11 by current HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.