California’s COVID State of Emergency to end in February

Governor Gavin Newsom will end the COVID-19 State of Emergency on February 28, 2023.

"With hospitalizations and deaths dramatically reduced due to the state’s vaccination and public health efforts, California has the tools needed to continue fighting COVID-19 when the State of Emergency terminates at the end of February, including vaccines and boosters, testing, treatments and other mitigation measures like masking and indoor ventilation."

- Governor Newsom's office

Newsom first declared the statewide emergency on March 4, 2020. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Newsom has issued 596 orders, most notably the stay-at-home order.

The state of emergency has been challenged in lawsuits and by state lawmakers.

The majority of Newsom's orders have either already expired or been lifted. As of October, just 27 of Newsom’s orders remain in place, according to the governor’s office.

The formal end of the emergency would not affect public health orders, which are issued by state and local public health officers. That includes a statewide mandate that schoolchildren be vaccinated against the coronavirus — a mandate that has been delayed until next summer at the earliest.

Newsom's office said the State of Emergency will now be phased out in favor of the "SMARTER Plan." The "SMARTER Plan" is California's endemic policy. Newsom announced the plan in February.

The plan emphasizes prevention and quick reactions to outbreaks over mandates.

The letters stand for Shots, Masks, Awareness, Readiness, Testing, Education and Rx, a common abbreviation for prescriptions and a reference to improving treatments for COVID-19.

The governor's office announced that the added timeline to the end the state of emeregency gives the health care system flexibility to handle any potential COVID-19 surge that may occur after the holidays in January and February.

It also in addition provides state and local partners the time needed to prepare for this phaseout and set themselves up for success afterwards.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been guided by the science and data – moving quickly and strategically to save lives. The State of Emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it,” said Governor Newsom. “With the operational preparedness that we’ve built up and the measures that we’ll continue to employ moving forward, California is ready to phase out this tool.”

The governor's office added that in order to maintain California’s COVID-19 laboratory testing and therapeutics treatment capacity, it will be seeking two statutory changes immediately upon the Legislature’s return:

1) The continued ability of nurses to dispense COVID-19 therapeutics;
2) The continued ability of laboratory workers to solely process COVID-19 tests.

“California’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has prepared us for whatever comes next. As we move into this next phase, the infrastructure and processes we’ve invested in and built up will provide us the tools to manage any ups and downs in the future,” said Secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency, Dr. Mark Ghaly. “While the threat of this virus is still real, our preparedness and collective work have helped turn this once crisis emergency into a manageable situation.”

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a toal of 10,458,792 COVID-19 cases and 95,604 deaths.

For more information on COVID-19 in California, visit: https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/