INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an extension of the COVID-19 public health emergency order on Wednesday. The extension will carry through the end of the year.
Holcomb previously announced he was willing to end the emergency order if the state legislature could meet three criteria. Those include allowing for the continuation of enhanced federal matching funds for Medicaid expenditures; the continuation of the enhanced benefit for those receiving federal food assistance; and extend the ability to efficiently vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds.
If legislation is not passed, Holcomb said the state would lose more than $175 million in future funding through March 2022 and about 250,000 Hoosiers would lose partial or full Medicaid coverage if the state public health emergency ends before the federal public health emergency.
The executive order also allows 200,000 eligible households to receive an additional $95 per month in federal food assistance, according to the governor.
Lawmakers had created a draft proposal to cover those three items, but it also included provisions that would force businesses to grant COVID-19 vaccination requirement exemptions without any questions and block similar immunization rules set by state universities.
The exemption Republicans had proposed included a medical reason authorized by a health professional (includes pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy); a written statement from an employee declining on sincerely held religious belief; and people who have recovered from COVID-19. The proposal said a business must allow employees to claim an exemption "without further inquiry."
Businesses would have been allowed to require COVID-19 testing for employees, but only once a week and at no cost to employees.
The issues were hotly debated during public testimony Nov. 23 and Republicans ended up tabling the issue until the new year.
"We'll bring this conversation back to life in January, right, and there will be a lot of folks who'd have had a lot of time to think things through and I look forward to addressing those, whatever shape and form they come in," Holcomb told 13News on Nov. 25.
The public health emergency order was first put into effect in March 2020.