Gavin Newsom committed to these COVID-19 response efforts in California. Here’s how he’s doing
Over and over again in press briefings since California shut down to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged to do his best to “meet the moment.”
His regular updates, streamed live on Facebook and Twitter, have prompted some to suggest he run for president. Others want to recall him from office entirely.
Along the way, he rolled out multiple programs, partnerships and pledges in response to daily fluctuations in infections, hospitalizations, joblessness and deaths.
Newsom’s response to the outbreak has included commitments to ramp up testing, buy masks to protect essential workers, protect the homeless and prevent evictions as pandemic restrictions cut off many Californians’ income. More than 4.8 million Californians have filed for unemployment since March 12.
Here’s a look at some of the commitments Newsom made and his administration’s progress in implementing them.
We’ll update this story regularly as the pandemic progresses.
Provide personal protective equipment
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a global shortage of masks and other protective equipment for doctors, nurses and other essential workers, forcing California to compete against other states, countries and the federal government to secure the supplies.
The scramble has forced California officials to vet companies on an unprecedented timeline, with some deals falling through after the state had already cut checks for them.
The Newsom administration’s highest profile effort to buy protective equipment has been hampered by delays. In early April, Newsom announced on MSNBC that his administration had signed agreements to buy 200 million masks per month from a China-based automaker BYD. He said the deal would solve California’s shortage and potentially provide masks for other western states, too.
Nearly two months later, California still does not have most of the masks, despite paying nearly $500 million up front. BYD twice failed to obtain federal certification for its N95 masks in time for deadlines laid out in its contract. The company has already refunded half of California’s upfront payment because it missed the first deadline.
On Monday, June 8, Newsom’s office announced that BYD had secured federal certification and that the company would begin producing and shipping 150 million N95 masks for California “in the coming days.”
In the meantime, the state has purchased and received close to 110 million surgical masks through the contract, according to Newsom’s office. Surgical masks are thought to be somewhat effective in reducing transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but not as effective as N95s.
Aside from the BYD deal, California has entered into dozens of contracts with private companies to secure more equipment. Initially, most of the contracts were secret, and lawmakers and journalists were told they needed to wait to see them. Under pressure to increase transparency around the public contracts, the administration has begun releasing them on a public website. The state has also been soliciting donations.
The state also has 11,000 ventilators, Newsom said Tuesday, June 9, although contracts and procurement records released by the state show that California’s biggest ventilator contract for 8,000 of the machines had produced just 20 as of Saturday, June 6.
As of Wednesday, June 10, the state says it has distributed 46 million N95 masks, 105 million surgical masks, 4 million gowns, 6 million face shields and 27 million gloves.
In the meantime, California nurses are still staging protests, saying they need more N95 masks and other gear to protect themselves from catching the coronavirus.
Expand testing
Gov. Gavin Newsom first identified testing as his “top priority” in February, when he announced the state lacked adequate supplies and was counting on the federal government to help increase testing “exponentially.”
More than a month later, the federal government had not delivered, and California still lacked swabs, chemicals and other materials needed to test its population for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Toward the end of March, California was averaging about 2,000 tests per day.
To address the problem, Newsom created a testing task force in collaboration with insurance company Blue Shield. He’s also entered into contracts with OptumServe and Google sister company Verily to launch more testing sites where residents can get tested for free.
The task force has helped coordinate supply chain logistics – determining which testing sites have shortages of materials like swabs and finding equipment for them. Now that the state’s capacity has increased, the task force is working to encourage more people to get tested and make sure people know that tests are no longer just reserved for sick people and essential workers, although those groups are still prioritized, said Blue Shield CEO Paul Markovich, who co-chairs the task force.
Newsom set a goal for the state to average 60,000 tests per day by the end of May. On Tuesday, June 9, Newsom said the state was testing more than 60,000 per day.
He has pointed to the increase in testing as the “most important thing” giving him confidence that the state is ready to reopen its economy, even as more and more people test positive for the disease.
The state-run testing sites proved to be expensive to launch. California paid nearly $340 per COVID-19 test for the first month of its partnership with Verily Life Sciences, according to the state’s contract with the company. The cost varied dramatically by county with the highest prices in San Mateo, where each test cost $819.
Under the second phase of the state’s agreement with the company, which runs from mid-April to mid-June, the cost-per-test laid out in state contracts drops to an estimated $127. At that price, the governor’s goal of 60,000 tests per day would cost the state more than $50 million a week. The administration says it is seeking federal reimbursement for testing and other costs related to COVID-19 response.
Ensure people receive unemployment aid
Newsom has been acknowledging problems with the state’s unemployment department for months, but people desperate for cash after the economy cratered continue to report major delays and problems getting help.
The Employment Development Department’s increased workload has been staggering. More than 4.8 million Californians have filed for unemployment since March 12, a huge increase for a department that says it processed 700,000 claims over two months at the height of the Great Recession. Newsom’s office estimates the unemployment rate will approach 25 percent.
So far, the EDD department has distributed $12.3 billion in benefits, but many newly unemployed workers say the help has been painfully slow. Phone lines at the department have been jammed and many have complained that they could not get through to a person who could help them with issues related to their claims.
State lawmakers grilled department director Sharon Hilliard about the issues at a hearing in late May. Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, called it “the number one issue” and said he’s received daily calls from constituents about problems they’ve faced.
In April, Newsom created a new phone line to handle the increased volume. But the new line offered only general advice and people still had to rely on the existing line, which operated just four hours per day five days a week, for individual questions.
Newsom says it has reassigned hundreds of existing staffers in the department to handle claims and has also redirected hundreds more workers from other state departments to help.
On May 6, he acknowledged that the problems persist and said that the department is trying to fix them.
“I recognize so many of you can’t wait much longer, can’t wait on a line for a human being to answer the phone call, or wait for your claim to be adjudicated,” Newsom said during a press conference. “Know they are continuing to work as hard as they possibly can.”
House homeless people, prevent evictions
On April 3, Newsom announced an initiative to house homeless people in at least 15,000 homeless people in hotel rooms, an initiative called Project Roomkey. The plan aimed to get homeless people, who are particularly vulnerable to the virus, out of shelters and into individual rooms, with priority given to those over 65 and people with pre-existing conditions.
On Friday, June 5, Newsom said the state has secured more than 15,000 rooms, and about 9,400 are occupied.
Newsom has also said he wants to prevent people from losing their homes during the pandemic. In an executive order at the end of March, Newsom said he was temporarily protecting tenants who couldn’t afford rent because of COVID-19. But top Democrats in the state Legislature and housing advocacy groups said the order wouldn’t stop landlords from initiating eviction proceedings and could have allowed a wave of evictions when it expired.
The California Judicial Council stepped in the following week to prohibit courts across the state from processing evictions until 90 days after the statewide emergency proclamation is lifted.
On Friday, June 5, Newsom expanded his eviction moratorium through July 28.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Gavin Newsom committed to these COVID-19 response efforts in California. Here’s how he’s doing."