Come May 11th, the Biden Administration said the White House will announce an end to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency declarations, which means a lot of healthcare initiatives that went into place during the pandemic are expected to stop.

Mahoning Valley frontline workers said COVID has become less prevalent when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths, but staffing shortages are still an issue. 

In less than five weeks, the change is set to put an end to many COVID measures that have been in place for years now.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated some of the declarations to be affected are:
-hospital flexibility when it comes to expanding capacity and waivers allowing broadened roles of workers
-access to free COVID tests
-lesser frequency of COVID data lab results collected

Valley doctors along with nursing unions said with staffing problems still prevalent, there is worry over whether an adjustment to these changes will impact how they respond if they can't rely on the extra tools if needed.

"The testing is a concern, but overall, I mean staffing has been a concern since the beginning of the pandemic and it's only gotten worse, and I don't think that this is going to make it any better," Chrissy Lewis, Coordinator of SEIU 1199, said.

Meanwhile, changes could affect some hospitals more than others, especially the ones that strongly utilized the pandemic waivers.

For example, Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Dee Banks said it was a huge help to allow nurses and doctors to practice in different states and broaden healthcare worker roles.

Lewis and Banks said acquiring adequate staffing has only gotten harder as the extra help is set to expire.

"I do have some concerns with the rural hospitals who are already under the weight of the burden of the Covid pandemic and to take this away, may have some impact on patient care," Banks said. 

Lewis said she believes it's vital that the nursing home industry and all healthcare providers as a whole focus on "getting staffing ratios put back in place and increasing wages, so we can get more people hired." 

Banks said she does have faith that most hospitals will be able to adjust by drawing from the same lessons they learned when trying to manage during the major surges of COVID.