The federal COVID-19 public health emergency will end on May 11. The end of the federal public health emergency signifies another turning point in our progress to manage this disease that has impacted all of our lives over the last three and a half years.

We are in a better place now to manage COVID-19 because of the availability of things like testing, treatments, and especially vaccines. These tools help us lessen some of the severe impacts from this disease.

However, COVID-19 is not gone, and continued progress will depend on all of us continuing to use these tools and other prevention steps to help protect ourselves and others.?Even as the public health emergency ends, it?s important to know that COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are still free at this time. People may see some changes to costs for COVID-19 tests depending on their insurance.?

COVID-19 will remain part of MDH?s everyday work even as we continue to shift away from the emergency response mode we were in for a long time to our more traditional public health role.?Minnesotans can continue to get the latest information on COVID-19 on our website at Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).?

Starting Thursday, May 11, people who have enabled COVID-19 exposure notifications on their phone will see a message that the service is no longer available. Exposure notifications in Minnesota relied on technology that was able to be shared with states through funding at the national level that will be stopping as the federal Public Health Emergency ends.

Exposure notifications ending means people who were using this technology on their phone will no longer receive notifications about a possible COVID-19 exposure. People who have a positive test through a lab will no longer receive a code to use on their phone to notify others of an exposure, and people who test positive with an at-home test will no longer be able to request a code to use on their phone to notify people.