$52M in funding

Newsom announces $52M in funding to help hard-hit part of California

By Amy Graff

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced at a Monday press conference that $52 million in federal grant funding will be allocated for a “unified, coordinated response” to the coronavirus pandemic in eight of the hardest-hit Central Valley counties.

Newsom said essential workers and the Latinx population have been disproportionately impacted in this region.

While the statewide positivity rate is about 7.5%, counties in the Central Valley are seeing rates between 10.7% and 17.7%. The governor didn't specifically list the eight counties that will receive funding as part of a $499 million grant from the CDC, but said Fresno, Tulare and Stanislaus are among them.

California Health and Human Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said this region of California is seeing "an inordinate number of cases" with some areas reporting 250 cases per 100,000 residents and others "all the way north of 450 cases per 100,000 residents."

The allocation will help fund everything from increased testing and contact tracing to medical supplies. Housing for the Harvest is a new program that will offer temporary hotel housing to farm and food processing workers who need to isolate due to COVID-19.

The Newsom administration is also deploying three strike teams to the Central Valley, similar to the state's effort in Imperial County. The teams will include administration officials and community groups who will work to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Newsom said.

In his daily briefing, Newsom went over the state's coronavirus numbers; California implemented 128,439 coronavirus tests Sunday and  6,891 of those came back positive.

Twenty-nine deaths were reported on Sunday, and the state’s current daily average is up from 91 a day last week to 109 this week, Newsom added.

Hospitalization numbers are continuing to rise, but at a more modest rate than they were three weeks ago when hospitalizations were up 50%. The 14-day hospitalizations rate was up 3% on Monday.

There are now 37 counties on the monitoring list for increased infection and hospitalization rates, with Santa Cruz County being the latest addition.