Iowa officially ends COVID state of emergency

Reynolds announced the news from her Twitter account, tweeting that "Today I'm announcing the end of the Public Health Disaster Proc, effective 11:59 p.m., Feb. 15. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly."

The state of Iowa announced that "Governor Reynolds signed the final extension of the state’s Public Health Disaster Emergency Proclamation today, announcing it will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 15, 2022."

Gov. Reynolds said: "We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely. After two years, it's no longer feasible or necessary."

Reynolds iterated that, in her opinion, we are now in the endemic stage of COVID 19 by saying, "The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly."

She continued with, "State agencies will now manage COVID-19 as part of normal daily business, and reallocate resources that have been solely dedicated to the response effort to serve other important needs for Iowans."

All over the world, similar measures are being taken to end all COVID-era restrictions and mandates. In the UK, for example, the government officially ended all mandates on Jan 19 2022.

Other countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Sweden have followed suit, with many more countries around the world contemplating also ending restrictions.