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California is getting ready to close dozens of state-run COVID-19 testing and therapy sites forward of the deliberate end of the state of emergency in February.
Sites which can be working underneath 50% capability are scheduled to close earlier than the top of January. Forty-four OptumServe sites shall be shuttered this week, and 48 cell “mini-buses” will begin closing in two weeks, in accordance to the California Department of Public Health. OptumServe, a well being care operations firm, runs 123 testing and therapy sites together with 4 vaccination clinics via state contracts.
The well being care big has at least four contracts, underneath its former identify Logistics Health, with the state totalling $1.05 billion to present testing and vaccination providers although it has been criticized in the past for its bumpy rollout. Another department of the corporate signed a further $47 million contract to design an information administration system for COVID-19 check outcomes.
“A final plan for demobilizing the remaining sites is being prepared, but we have not set a completion date,” an unidentified division spokesperson mentioned in a press release. The state well being division would solely reply emailed questions and didn’t attribute the assertion to an individual.
The state of emergency, which has offered further funding and staffing flexibilities at medical services, is slated to finish on the final day of February.
The closures come only one week after Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his January price range proposal, which strikes $614 million in unspent COVID-19 response funds to the state’s common fund and drastically lowered the quantity of pandemic cash for the upcoming 12 months.
Last 12 months’s price range included $1.8 billion for COVID-19 emergency response and the state’s long-term strategy, whereas the proposed price range for the upcoming fiscal 12 months is barely $176.6 million. The cutbacks come as the state faces a projected $22.5 billion deficit, in accordance to Newsom’s proposal. State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly mentioned in a price range name with reporters that the majority of the proposed lower comes from fewer state testing obligations, however he emphasised that the spending reductions should not “a statement about moving on from COVID in California.”
“We will continue to seek opportunities to support public health,” Ghaly mentioned. “We learned a lot through this COVID response, and we need to make sure we don’t lose those gains.”
Demand for molecular COVID-19 testing has plummeted statewide since final January, when the omicron variant pushed hospitals to the brink of collapse. At the time, greater than 800,000 PCR check outcomes had been reported for a single day and greater than 15,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on the peak of the surge. In comparability, lower than 30,000 check outcomes and 4,600 hospitalizations had been reported on the ultimate day of December (the latest day with finalized tallies, according to state data).
Across the state, county well being departments are getting ready for the closures and absorbing the prices into their very own budgets.
In Los Angeles County, OptumServe will cease working 4 sites, however the county will contract with one other vendor to maintain the doorways open, a county well being providers spokesperson mentioned by way of electronic mail.
“It is important to underscore that the change will be seamless,” the well being providers communications workplace informed CalMatters in an unsigned assertion. “Community residents seeking a testing site will not experience any disruption to the existing services.”
During a media briefing final week, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer mentioned the county was dedicated to guaranteeing there are “ample” testing and vaccination choices.
In different areas of the state, well being departments are unable to run the sites alone. All 5 OptumServe sites in Fresno County will close by Jan. 31. Only one of many sites is at present working above 50% capability, public well being spokesperson Michelle Rivera mentioned. The cell test-to-treat buses will cease providers the primary week of February.
Community members will nonetheless have choices, Rivera mentioned. The county well being division is constant to work with community-based organizations, UCSF-Fresno and Fresno State’s nursing faculty to maintain offering testing, treatment and vaccination providers all through the realm. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors additionally accepted funding for a rural cell well being program to ship well being care to farmworker and different rural communities.
Fresno County has been hit particularly hard by the latest post-holiday wave of COVID-19 in addition to concurrent flu and respiratory syncytial virus surges, issuing emergency do-not-transport orders to EMTs for the sixth time because the begin of the pandemic to fight overflowing emergency departments. Do-not-transport orders, often known as assess-and-refer, require ambulance personnel to decide whether or not a affected person requires emergency transportation or if they’re steady sufficient to be referred to a non-emergency medical facility like major care.
In Santa Clara County, state-run sites are additionally slated for closure within the coming weeks, emergency operations spokesperson Roger Ross mentioned. The county will, nonetheless, proceed to run three mass vaccination sites and has already begun folding COVID-19 response into the well being division’s regular operations.
“Public health recently created a COVID Prevention and Control Program as part of our standard operations. Most of the work now resides here,” Ross mentioned. “Unfortunately, it appears we will be dealing with COVID for the long haul.”
In Orange County, the place COVID-19 well being orders have at instances drawn public ire, testing and vaccination methods will largely transfer to “the open marketplace where individuals will self-manage COVID-19” via major care and different group sources, the health department announced last month in a news launch. County-run vaccine sites, which had been serving about 200 sufferers per week, had been closed in December, though the well being division continues to supply vaccinations for weak populations like unhoused people, mentioned Obinna Oleribe, deputy chief of Orange County public well being providers.
The federal authorities requires medical health insurance plans to cover eight over-the-counter COVID-19 tests per particular person per 30 days, together with FDA-approved at-home PCR assessments. Every family also can order four free rapid tests from the federal authorities. When used appropriately, at-home assessments of all types are thought of extremely correct, though knowledge reveals PCR tests are more reliable.
