Here's my addendum to that. This probably started with good intentions. Someone at FEMA during the pandemic proposed this policy (every part of the Federal Government was scrambling to do Covid stuff) and it got approved easily.

Then it persisted, because 1) that's what temporary government programs do, 2) believe it or not, many government workers still worry about covid, and 3) it was convenient to someone to have those elevated covid numbers.

Now it's probably hard to get rid of, because managing it is someone's job and they don't want to fire someone.

That's how these bureaucracies actually function.