SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Saturday a proposed $2.7 billion COVID-19 Emergency Response Package.
According to the Governor's Press Office, the package includes a $1.4 billion emergency appropriation request, to support testing capacity, accelerate vaccination and booster efforts, support frontline workers, strengthen the health care system and battle misinformation.
“From day one, California has taken swift and direct action to battle COVID-19 with policies that have saved tens of thousands of lives, but there’s more work to be done,” said Governor Newsom. “Our proposed COVID-19 Emergency Response Package will support our testing capacity, accelerate vaccination and booster efforts, support frontline workers and health care systems and battle misinformation, with a focus on the hardest-hit communities.”
Gov. Newsom's overall package includes the following:
$1.2 BILLION: BOLSTER TESTING
- Expand hours and capacity at testing sites throughout the state to help slow the spread.
- Distribute millions of COVID-19 antigen tests to local health departments, community clinics and county offices of education and schools. This is critical to the state’s operational readiness and continued efforts to combat COVID-19, and it includes a $1.4 billion emergency appropriation request to the Legislature for California’s immediate needs.
- Supporting the state’s testing facilities, including specimen collection and expanding capacity in order to meet demand.
- Supporting state departments in testing their staff and congregate populations
$583 MILLION: GET MORE CALIFORNIANS VACCINATED & BOOSTED, COMBAT MISINFORMATION
- Continue the “Vaccinate all 58” public education campaign to provide reliable information and build vaccine confidence while combating misinformation, all of which is in partnership with 250 ethnic media outlets.
- Continue a robust community outreach and direct appointment assistance campaign by conducting door-to-door canvassing, phone banking and texting with over 700 CBOs and community partners in partnership with philanthropy.
- In-home vaccination and testing programs to meet Californians where they’re at.
- Provide free transportation to vaccination appointments throughout the state to help get more Californians vaccinated and boosted.
$614 MILLION: SUPPORT OUR FRONTLINE WORKERS AND HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS
- Support and distribution of critical personnel resources for health care systems to help protect frontline workers, patient care and hospital surge capacity as well as additional staffing for vaccination sites.
$200 MILLION: SUPPORT STATE RESPONSE OPERATIONS
- Resources to enhance the state’s emergency response and public health capacities, including staffing and information technology at California Department of Public Health, Office of Emergency Services and Emergency Medical Services Authority.
$110 MILLION: SUPPORT VULNERABLE POPULATIONS AND BOLSTER CONTACT TRACING EFFORTS
- Increased public health and humanitarian efforts at the California-Mexico border to keep migrants safe, including vaccinations, testing and isolation and quarantine services.
- Expanded statewide contact tracing activities to help keep Californians safe and slow the spread.
Gov. Newsom's budget also calls for new legislation to implement supplemental paid sick leave policies given the current situation being driven by the omicron variant to better protect frontline workers.
WATCH RELATED: Home COVID tests could be skewing positive cases in San Diego County (January 2022)
