COVID-19 Update February 9, 2023

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified some of the guidance on the termination of the public health emergency this week. Also, the Arizona State University (ASU) Biodesign Institute has created a statewide survey to better understand the paths that new COVID variants take when moving through Arizona.

The Arizona Department of Health Services COVID-19 data dashboard reports 3,099 new cases of COVID-19 over the past week. There were 54 newly reported deaths related to the coronavirus.

CMS said this week that Medicare beneficiaries will continue to have access to necessary COVID-19 PCR and antigen tests after the end of the PHE in May. But the agency clarified that the tests would need to be ordered by a Medicare provider and at-home COVID-19 rapid tests will no longer be covered, Inside Health Policy explains.

In December, the Urban Institute published a study on the ways in which the end of the PHE would be expected to impact health coverage for millions of Americans. One of the most discouraging findings was the dearth of accessible information on how policies would change, which could lead to many Americans losing health insurance without knowing their full scope of options.

ASU’s Bidodesign Institute partnered with three regional hospitals, Valleywise, Phoenix Children’s and Dignity Health to survey the rise in COVID-19 variants throughout Arizona. ASU News reports that the findings show that the emergence of the first Omicron variant, BA.1, was 2.3 times faster than Delta or subsequent Omicron subvariants. This was due to an antigenic shift, or a sweeping change in the genetic makeup of a virus, that usually results in a large pandemic.