PARAMOUNT, Calif. (KNX) — Speaking in front of a mobile COVID-19 testing bus Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out the state's efforts to combat the virus with the "COVID-19 Emergency Response" package.
The bus, one of 50 "Optum Serve" sites that have been set up across the state aids testing efforts by providing services from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every single day of the week. Soon, another 30 will be placed around the state to serve even the most rural communities, Newsom said.
"It's important to know that 6,288 sites persist [in California]...that's 31% of all national testing sites," Newsom said. "But we don't want to see lines, so we're continuing to provide more support to expand sites and locations."
Last week the governor's office deployed National Guard members to dozens of sites to help staff. Soon, Newsom said more will be called to help assist at the additional 30 mobile sites.
In addition to adding mobile sites and calling in the National Guard, the state has already brought in 2,363 out-of-state contract staff to fill in the gaps for health care facilities and plans to bring in another 1,250 more.
“This is going to be a challenging period for so many folks," Newsom said, saying even without asking he can see that the state's health professionals are emotionally, physically and mentally after nearly two years of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
To help support schools across the state, Newsom also issued an executive order to "allow more flexibility to bring in substitutes and retirees" as more and more school staff begin testing positive for COVID while Omicron continues to spread.
"We need to keep kids in in-person learning," Newsom said. "It's our main goal."
To address safety needs, Mark Ghaly, the secretary of state Health and Human Services, said nine million N95 masks have been sent to schools so far, with a total of one billion sent to cities, counties, school districts and local health offices across the state.
"We’re going to see so many Californians infected by Omicron but because of great success with vaccinations, the severity of disease we’re seeing is a lot lower," he said.
"Our baseline immunity to COVID 19 virus and variants — and future variants, will hopefully be strong enough to overcome...and could start to move [California] into a bit of a new normal."
Latest in L.A. County
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said as of this week, the county is conducting more than 200,000 COVID tests per day.
Hahn said she hopes the governor's commitment to the emergency response package will help boost that number by increasing the number of testing sites for each L.A. County community.
Tuesday the county Department of Public Health reported 34,827 new cases and the COVID-19-related deaths of 15 more Angelenos.
In addition, health officials said 3,766 people are currently hospitalized with the virus.
"In L.A. County cases have continued to increase rapidly across all groups however at significantly lower levels for vaccinated individuals," health officials said in a statement.
"For the week ending Dec. 25, case rates were much higher for those unvaccinated. There were 991 new cases per 100,000 unvaccinated; 588 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated without boosters; and 254 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated with boosters," the department continued, urging Angelenos to get vaccinated or booster shots.
To learn more about vaccinations and appointments in California, click here.
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