The United States will extend the public health emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to get free tests, vaccines and treatments until at least April.

The possibility of a winter surge in COVID cases and the need for more time to transition out of the public health emergency to a private market were two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the emergency status in January, a Biden administration official said on Friday.

The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, and has been renewed each quarter since.

But the government in August began signalling it planned to let it expire in January.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has promised to give states 60 days’ notice before letting the emergency expire, which would have been on Friday if it did not plan on renewing it again in January.

Health experts believe the country will see a COVID-19 surge this winter, one official said.

“We may be in the middle of one in January,” he said.

“That is not the moment you want to pull down the public health emergency.”

The official said there remained a lot of work to be done for the transition out of the public health emergency. That work was ongoing but not finished.

The government has been paying for COVID vaccines, some tests and certain treatments, as well as other care under the public health emergency declaration.

When the emergency expires, the government will begin to transfer COVID healthcare to private insurance and government health plans.

– AAP