Gov. Eric Holcomb extends public health emergency through March 4

Gov. Eric Holcomb has renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency for the 23rd time through March 4, as he awaits requested changes to Indiana's law. 

The emergency, first declared in March 2020, allows Holcomb to issue executive orders to respond quickly to the pandemic, if needed. 

In November, Holcomb had committed to ending the declared public health emergency in the future, but only after lawmakers pass legislation that would allow the state to continue to receive certain types of federal funding and to permit children under age 12 to be vaccinated outside a doctor's office, provisions that are currently only allowed because of the public health emergency.

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Such legislation however has been delayed by disagreements over whether a provision gutting private vaccine mandates — unpopular among the business community — should be included in the bill.

House Bill 1001, which has passed out of the House and remains in the Senate, would both enable Holcomb to end the emergency and significantly restrict vaccine mandates. Meanwhile Senate Bill 3, which passed out of the Senate and remains in the House, only includes the provisions requested by Holcomb. 

Holcomb has made it clear he prefers to keep the two issues separate, but hasn't said whether he'd veto the House version if it ended up on his desk. 

"I have long said very openly that I believe that the employers, the businesses, are in the best position to determine how to keep their employees safe," Holcomb told IndyStar in December. "I trust them to make that decision. Now I will be paying very close attention to every word in whatever bill makes its way."

Indiana reported 5,655 new COVID-19 cases Jan. 31 as the omicron surge has begun to settle down. 

Call IndyStar reporter Kaitlin Lange at 317-432-9270. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.