• Nirav Shah is currently the director of the CDC.
• He oversaw the state’s operations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• He will take over for Debra Houry.

Governor of Maine Janet Mills announced on Thursday that Nirav Shah, currently the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will take the lead in leading the American CDC.

In June 2019, Shah joined the Maine CDC and oversaw its operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. He will take over for Debra Houry, who started in 2021 and will answer to Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US CDC.

His hiring is a part of a larger ongoing reorganization of the agency’s structure and comes a day after the United States extended the Covid-19 designation as a public health emergency.

After receiving criticism for months over how it handled the Covid-19 and the monkeypox epidemic, the US CDC said in August that it will make a number of changes to prioritize its public health response.

While the Maine Department of Health and Human Services begins a nationwide search for Shah’s replacement, the deputy director of the Maine CDC, Nancy Beardsley, will lead the state organization in an interim capacity.

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