Following Backlash, Trump Admin Now Says Funding for COVID-19 Testing Sites Will Continue – By Peter Wade (Rolling Stone) / April 9 2020
“Trump ending support now will cost lives,” Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to the decision
UPDATE: The Department of Health and Human Services is now saying they have halted their plans to end support for coronavirus testing sites to states on Friday, according to a Thursday night report from NPR.
The report goes to say that localities will be able to choose whether they want federal funding and assistance to continue.
Original story below:
Days before the expected peak of the coronavirus crisis, the Trump administration says it is going ahead with plans to end federal support for COVID-19 testing on Friday, transitioning the responsibility for managing and funding the sites to states.
Across the country, 40 Community-Based Testing Sites that FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services established will either be shuttered or taken over by state governments. The FEMA/HHS sites were created to rapidly scale up testing abilities nationwide at the beginning of the crisis.
A FEMA spokesperson said that the federal testing sites were always meant to be temporary: “The Community-Based Testing Sites (CBTS) program was intended as an immediate high impact intervention to bring initial testing capabilities to critical areas across the country… now that the FDA has given approval for individuals to self-administer COVID-19 nasal swab tests at testing sites, the demand for PPE and trained health care providers will significantly be reduced.”
Continue to article: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-ending-coronavirus-testing-federal-funding-981234/
