Ongoing federal funding support for local governments to combat the COVID-19 pandemic dried up Friday, prompting some Bay Area counties to modify how they will respond to future surges and variants.
Federal legislators have not approved a standalone funding bill since 2021’s American Rescue Plan Act for response efforts to the pandemic like staffing testing and vaccination clinics.
Earlier this year, the White House had requested some $22.5 billion to be included in the annual federal budget to support pandemic response both domestic and globally.
White House officials argued that a lack of funding would force the closure of programs like the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s reimbursement system for health care providers that offer COVID testing and vaccination services to uninsured people.
That program ended April 5, but other parts of the federal government’s pandemic response like nationwide National Guard deployment and a U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement program for local governments ended Friday, when the state and local fiscal years begin, after federal lawmakers recently removed the proposed $22.5 billion during budget negotiations.
A spokesman for Contra Costa Health Services said Contra Costa County would not make any changes Friday related to the end of federal funding support, but said that the nature of the county’s COVID mitigation efforts could eventually change regardless.
“We are constantly evaluating our response given the changing nature of the landscape — for instance, new vaccines, new age groups for vaccine, new variants — and also the fact that residents can now get these services from their health care providers,” CCHS spokesman Will Harper said.
Counties across the state expect to receive an undetermined amount of funding from the state budget, approved Thursday, to maintain vaccination and testing programs and other pandemic-era services.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also touted that the budget, which includes $1.8 billion specifically for COVID mitigation, earmarked $300 million in dedicated funding for local public health departments.
Kaplan said Sonoma County has budgeted conservatively while it waits to find out the amount of funding it will receive from the state.
He estimated that the county’s COVID response for the fiscal year that ended Thursday cost between $5 million and $7 million.
“We have a plan as more money becomes available, if it comes forth from the federal government, to expand our operations as resources come online,” he said.