Seventy Republicans urge Biden to end COVID's public health emergency designation

Republicans in Congress have asked President Biden to end the designation of COVID-19 as a public health emergency (PHE), citing the accessibility of vaccines and effective treatments as well as the harms of long-term isolation on public health.

Their request for the president to undo the designation comes as calls grow — including from former Biden advisers — for the federal government to chart a course for the next stage of the pandemic. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have plunged after the dramatic omicron-driven surge, and deaths have begun falling as well, though the seven-day average was still 2,300 deaths per day, as of Thursday.

"We're moving toward a time when COVID won't disrupt our daily lives, a time when COVID won't be a constant crisis but rather will be something we can protect against and treat," Jeffrey Zients, the White House COVID response coordinator, said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Last week, a number of Democratic-led states announced the end of indoor mask mandates.

"Today we call on your administration to do what so many states and other countries already have: accept that COVID-19 is endemic, recognize that current heavy-handed government interventions are doing more harm than good, and immediately begin the process by which we unwind the PHE so our country can get back to normal," the GOP members of Congress wrote in a letter dated Thursday.

More than 70 House Republicans — led by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Brett Guthrie and Morgan Griffith — signed the letter addressed to Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

They asked that Biden submit a plan to Congress by no later than March 15.

Becerra last renewed the PHE designation a month ago. The letter noted it's set to expire on April 15. ...