COVID-19 Public Emergency Ends: What Will Change In NJ

NEW JERSEY — The federal COVID-19 public health emergency expires Thursday night, more than three years after it was initiated in the United States in 2020.

While some of the most visible signs of the pandemic have been put aside months ago, the end of the federal public health emergency brings a host of other changes, including ones that will affect New Jersey residents directly.

The decision to let the public health emergency expire is "based on current COVID-19 trends," a statement from the federal Department of Health and Human Services said. The department has been working to "ensure an orderly transition out of the COVID-19 PHE (public health emergency)."

One of the biggest impacts affects New Jersey residents whose health insurance is through Medicaid, where thousands of residents had been covered under what state officials say were special rules related to the federal public health emergency.

"These rules have allowed most NJ FamilyCare/Medicaid members to keep their health coverage, even if they no longer qualified — for example, if their income was too high," the state Department of Human Services said.

Eligibility reviews of those covered under NJ FamilyCare have begun, and those who are no longer eligible will have to seek health insurance coverage elsewhere, state officials said, and information is available on New Jersey's "Stay Covered" webpage.

There are more than 2.2 million New Jersey residents covered by Medicaid, and more than 286,000 of them may lose coverage, NJ Spotlight reported.

For residents with private health insurance, coverage for COVID-19 vaccinations and treatments will shift over time to their insurance.

"When that transition to the traditional health care market occurs, to protect families, the Administration has facilitated access to COVID-19 vaccines with no out-of-pocket costs for nearly all individuals and will continue to ensure that effective COVID-19 treatments, such as Paxlovid, are widely accessible," federal Health and Human Services officials said.

Those covered under Medicare Part B and Medicare Advantage plans will continue to be covered without a co-pay or cost-sharing, federal officials said.

For those lacking health insurance, the CDC maintains an online No Cost COVID-19 Testing Locator.

Gov. Phil Murphy lifted New Jersey's public health emergency in March 2022, ending the vast majority of masking mandates. In April, Murphylifted vaccination and testing mandates for those working in congregate care settings, one of the last health mandates related to the pandemic.

The federal public health emergency was declared Jan. 31, 2020, when there were six confirmed cases of the then-new coronavirus in the country. Since then, more than 1.13 million people have died in the United States from the effects of the virus, and more than 104.6 million cases have been documented, according to the national Centers for Disease Control. More than 56 million booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

In New Jersey, more than 2.5 million PCR test-confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, and more than 33,000 residents have died from the effects of the virus, according to state health officials. More than 14.5 million doses of the vaccines have been administered in New Jersey, with 8 million people having received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Due to limited data collection on various virus statistics, the public may have less knowledge moving forward about new variants. Officials say not to worry.

"We have the right data for this phase of COVID-19 that will allow us to understand what’s happening with the virus in America in real-time," the CDC said. "Simply put, while what we have going forward will be different, it will still allow CDC, local public health officials, and the members of the public to understand COVID-19 dynamics at the community level."

With reporting by Justin Heinze