Newsom Announces Coronavirus Testing Task Force, Website To Get Medical Supplies To Front Lines
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Governor Gavin Newsom announced in a press conference on Saturday the launch of a one-stop website designed to get medical supplies to the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus.
The website – covid19supplies.ca.gov – will allow parties "to donate, sell or offer to manufacture 13 of the most essential medical supplies, including ventilators, N95 respirators and testing materials," according to a press release from the governor's office.
Newsom said he is calling on individuals, companies and organizations who have crucial medical supplies to contribute to the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're also asking for manufacturers that are willing to ship to give us more specific data on what they're willing to ship... supply chain, time to get these units procured, produced," said Newsom.
In addition to the website, Newsom announced the COVID-19 Testing Task Force, a public-private collaboration built to quickly and significantly boost the state's testing capacity.
"The testing space has been a challenging one and I own that. And I have a responsibility as your Governor to do better and to do more testing in the State of California," Newsom said.
The Governor says nearly 127,000 people in the state have been tested but he says that's low and that he plans to do better, aiming to increase the number of tests being done "5-fold" over the next few weeks. The Governor says the Task Force will scale up testing as demand increases.
"These actions marshal the generosity and innovative spirit of Californians to help us achieve two essential goals: getting more lifesaving supplies into our health care system and increasing our testing capacity," Newsom said.
Newsom said the Task Force is focusing on ensuring the rapid turn around of test results, enabling new, high-quality tests as they become as soon as possible, improving the tracking and evaluation of COVID-19 testing efforts, and ensure there are no delays in testing efforts.
"The Task Force is connecting with laboratories across California to tap into unique technologies to improve and refine our testing capabilities to ensure we're meeting the needs of patients across the state," said California Department of Public Health Assistant Director Charity Dean, M.D., M.P.H.
In other efforts to boost testing, Newsom also announced collaborations with UC San Diego and UC Davis to establish high throughput testing hubs. A collaboration with Stanford Medicine was announced to launch the first serology test in the state.
