The White House reiterates that it has not changed its policy on covid-19 despite Biden's comments that "the pandemic is over"

Video: Biden says the pandemic is 'over' 0:33

(CNN) --

The US government is downplaying President Joe Biden's comments declaring the coronavirus pandemic "is over," suggesting his comments signal a continuation of the House's stance. Blanca towards the pandemic in recent months.

"The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid. We're still working hard on it. But the pandemic is over," Biden said during an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday.

The comments took some members of the administration by surprise, according to two officials.

• What does it mean that Biden says the pandemic is over?

A day later, an administration official told CNN that the president's comments do not mark a change in policy regarding the administration's handling of the virus, and that there are no plans to lift the Public Health Emergency, which has been in force since January 2020 and which currently runs until October 13.

Last month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adjusted its guidance on Covid-19 to urge the nation to move away from measures such as quarantines and lockdowns. distancing and focus instead on reducing serious illness from covid-19.

However, the agency says that some people, including the elderly, those who are immunocompromised, those with certain disabilities or underlying health conditions, are at higher risk of serious illness and may need to take extra precautions. .

Officials, including the president, have previously spoken of a new phase of the virus, but have specifically said that it is not over yet.

Biden outlined a transition in the White House's outlook on the virus in March, saying at the time that Covid is not over, but "no longer controls our lives."

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"Thanks to the strategy that we executed last year in terms of vaccination, tests, treatments and so on, we find ourselves in a new moment of this pandemic. It does not mean that covid-19 is over; it means that covid-19 no longer controls our lives. That's what it means," he said at the White House on March 30.

And in April, Biden's medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told PBS NewsHour that the United States is "certainly, right now, in this country, out of the pandemic phase."

But the next day, he told CNN that his comments had been misconstrued by some to mean the pandemic was over, "which is not what I said."

"We are not over the pandemic. Let no one misunderstand that the pandemic is over, but what we are in is a different phase of the pandemic," Fauci said.

"A phase that is a transition phase, that we hope will lead to greater control in which you can return to a certain form of normality without a total upheaval of society, from the economic, social point of view. , school, etc."

Nearly five months later, Biden's comments that the pandemic is "over" could pose political problems for the administration's efforts to seek additional funding for the Covid-19 response.

• The end of the covid-19 pandemic is near, says the director general of the WHO, "so let's take advantage of this opportunity"

The White House sent a supplemental funding request to Congress to include support for Ukraine, COVID-19 and monkeypox responses, and natural disaster recovery for the next government funding bill ahead of the deadline. September 30 deadline.

This includes a request for $22.4 billion that officials say is needed for testing, treatment and vaccines.

Congressional negotiators have indicated that it is unlikely that a budget for Covid-19 will be included in the funding bill.

The government has taken some steps to shift parts of the pandemic response to the commercial market, efforts that will likely accelerate in the absence of federal funding.

-- Kevin Liptak, Jeremy Diamond, Jamie Gumbrecht, Naomi Thomas and Brenda Goodman contributed reporting.

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