COVID-19 still around, but some WA programs tied to pandemic relief coming to an end

You could call it the long goodbye.

The World Health Organization on Friday ended the global health emergency for COVID-19, in place since early 2020. In the United States, the federal government has set May 11 as the end of the national public health emergency for COVID-19, first declared also in early 2020.

On Friday, the Washington state Department of Health held a briefing to offer guidance on what all these endings mean.

First off, officials made clear that one thing not yet ended is the pandemic itself.

“COVID-19 will be here for the foreseeable future,” said the state’s chief science officer Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett.

“We’re heartened to see that despite new subvariants circulating in the community, hospitalizations have been trending down since the beginning of the year,” he said. “However, dozens of deaths still occur each week, and the most vulnerable are the elderly and those with chronic conditions.”

Kwan-Gett also cautioned that long COVID, where patients do not recover in the usual time frame, remained a concern.

“Long COVID is a real disease that is estimated to affect more than 300,000 people in Washington state,” he said, “many of whom have suffered enormous impacts to their quality of life.”

He recommended people take advantage of the state’s supply of free COVID tests, available online at the Say Yes! COVID Test website, which ends May 11, and through the federal government’s free test program available via the U.S. Postal Service, which is also winding down.

DOH will continue to support schools with access to testing supplies into the 2023-2024 school year, Kwan-Gett noted.

Another feature ending May 11 is Washington’s phone notification system regarding COVID exposure.

More than 235,000 people use WA Notify in the state to anonymously alert others of possible exposure to COVID-19, generating over 2.5 million exposure notifications. Just under 4 million activated the system on their phones.

“Our state was one of the first states to implement exposure notifications and has had one of the highest adoption rates,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, chief of Prevention, Safety & Health for the state.

“After May 11, if you test positive, please take care in your community and notify the people you’ve been in close contact with that they’ve been exposed,” she said.

While the state emergency is ending, “in Washington state COVID remains a workplace hazard, and employers have a responsibility to protect their employees related to that,” Fehrenbach said, “so employers may choose to still require vaccinations or masks as part of their mitigation of COVID-19 in the workplace.”

Changes to some Medicaid recipients are also on the way. Apple Health coverage also will be affected.

“Upwards of 300,000 to 500,000 people may lose their Apple Health coverage because the pandemic protections that were in place in terms of eligibility and coverage will end,” said Jason T. McGill, assistant director, Medicaid Program Division, Washington State Health Care Authority.

The first group affected will see coverage end by the end of May. Letters were sent to those affected on April 1, he noted.

“The good news is we’ve been preparing for this since the beginning of the pandemic,” McGill said. “Most people will have coverage such as employer coverage or they will have aged out of Medicaid and then to Medicare and have Medicare coverage at age 65. So most people will be covered.”

For those at risk of losing coverage, he recommended going to the state’s online Health Plan Finder, where they might still find coverage at near-zero cost, made possible through “significant subsidies” from Congress, he added.

“Right now in Washington, we have historic uninsured rate of about 4%. But that will go up. And we need to be prepared,” he said.

Medicaid will continue covering all vaccines, including COVID vaccine, he noted, “and that will be free of charge at any participating network, pharmacy or clinic. And we’ll continue doing that after the end of the pandemic as well.”

COVID test costs also will be covered “at least through September 2024,” he said, for those on Medicaid.

The officials on Friday looked back at the numbers of COVID’s toll.

Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah called on everyone to remember the “more than 16,000 Washingtonians, more than 1 million Americans, and more than 7 million people across the globe who have died from COVID-19.”

In Pierce County, the state lists a death toll of 1,635.

In terms of vaccinations, Shah praised the state’s efforts.

“We had more than 16 million doses of COVID vaccine that had been given in the state of Washington,” said Shah. “And just about 75 percent of Washington’s population completed a primary series and that’s for ages over 5 and above.”

He added that “over 60 percent of eligible people received at least a booster of some sort again over the age of 5.”