SACRAMENTO - Nearly three years after it began, California is winding down its emergency response to COVID-19.
With the ending of the state emergency over the Coronavirus ending on Tuesday, February 28th, policies and protocols will be changing. Dr. Paul Schalch-Lepe of UC San Diego Health tells NBC 7 local officials won't be able to quickly enact mask wearing or restrictions on gatherings anymore without a more thorough approval process.
"Now we've passed that threshold in terms of the number of cases and hospital admissions and things like that, that don't require us to have these emergency measures in place,” said Schalch-Lepe.
Mass vaccination and testing sites will also close and insurance companies will no longer be required to fully cover COVID-19 vaccines. COVID is still infecting nearly 3,000 people and killing an average of 20 every day in California.
“It's still out there and we shouldn't forget that but, of course, we've learned a lot,” said Schalch-Lepe. “We have now, not only vaccines but also treatments, you know, medications that can be prescribed and initiated whenever someone's developing severe symptoms.”
The national COVID emergency will be ending in May.
Photo: Getty Images