“After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly.”
Iowa’s public health emergency proclamation will expire Feb. 15 and two websites that track COVID-19 data will be decommissioned, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday.
Why it matters: Iowa is moving past the pandemic and will manage COVID-19 like other infectious illnesses.
State of play: The state’s two COVID-19 tracking websites, coronavirus.iowa.gov and vaccinateiowa.gov, will be decommissioned on Feb. 16, according to Reynolds’ statement.
- COVID-19 data will be reported weekly on the Iowa Department of Public Health website, like how the flu is reported.
- Iowa and health care providers will also continue to report COVID-19 data required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What they’re saying: “We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely,” Reynolds said in a press release.
- Nearly half of U.S. states have already discontinued their public health proclamations and several more are set to expire in February if they aren’t renewed, she noted.