Gov. Newsom discusses Trump’s executive order & resignation of CA Public Health Director
Governor Gavin Newsom delivered an update at noon Monday on the state of California's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Newsom also addressed President Trump's action over the weekend to enact coronavirus pandemic relief efforts.
MORE: Breaking down the executive actions Trump signed on coronavirus relief
A CNN article explained the unemployment benefits outlined in the executive order signed by President Trump.
Under the previous unemployment benefit passed by Congress, millions of Americans received an additional blanket $600 a week from the federal government on top of their state unemployment benefits.
States have to chip in. Now, under Trump’s measure, the federal government is requiring states to pick up the tab for 25% ($100) of the as much as $400 additional benefit each person may be able to receive weekly in additional aid. On top of that, a state must agree to enter into this financial agreement with the federal government for any unemployed person living there to get any of the additional benefits.
During his update on Monday, Newsom said it would cost the state $700 million per week to implement Trump’s proposed unemployment boost.
Newsom said funding from the CARES Act has essentially run out so coming up with 25% of the funding would require significant cuts elsewhere.
"There is no money sitting in the piggy bank of the previous CARES Act to be reprioritized or reconstituted for this purpose," Newsom said. "Simply, it does not exist."
Over the weekend, Gov. Newsom tweeted a link to an Associated Press article titled "States on hook for billions under Trump’s unemployment plan" and added the comment, "This is absurd. Americans need real help -- not false promises."
Newsom dodged questions about the abrupt resignation of Dr. Sonia Angell, California Public Health Director and Public Health Officer.
“Decisions were made, and we’re moving forward,” he said of the Sunday night resignation by Dr. Sonia Angell. “No one’s trying to hide that, no one’s trying to mask that. We’re owning that.”
No reason for the resignation was given but the departure comes at the same time as state officials are continuing to deal with a computer glitch that is delaying accurate coronavirus case data statewide.
The technical glitch has plagued the data system the state relies on to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools has been fixed, but it could take up to 48 hours to get the numbers updated, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Friday.
“Our data system has failed,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said, leaving up to 300,000 records backlogged, though not all of them are coronavirus cases and some may be duplicates. California reported 8,436 new confirmed cases Friday and surpassed 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
Ghaly’s briefing Friday came days after the administration acknowledged the system was under-reporting cases and after Newsom said at a Monday news conference that indicators were pointing in the right direction after weeks of a viral surge.
Ghaly said the problem began with a computer server outage July 25 and was compounded by the state’s failure to renew a 2-year-old certificate for an intermediary for one of the nation’s largest commercial labs, meaning the state did not receive updates for five days from Quest Diagnostics. He said he learned of the magnitude of the data backlog late Monday afternoon, though others in the department were aware of it earlier.
Despite the backlog, Ghaly said the public should have confidence that trends are going in the right direction. His department has increased its server capacity and has accelerated creation of a data reporting system because the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) was not built to handle this much information, he said.
“The governor has directed a full investigation of what happened, and we will hold people accountable,” he said.
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