COVID-19 testing focuses throughout five states are set to lose federal financing next week after the Trump administration chose not to extend the program that developed them.
As a result, 13 screening websites throughout Colorado (1 ), Illinois (2 ), New Jersey (2 ), Pennsylvania (1) and Texas (7) will likely close if those states are not able to change the needed funding.
In a declaration to HuffPost, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir validated that the program that originally moneyed 41 such websites throughout 48 states would end next week.
Giroir said it becomes part of a planned shift to “more effective and reliable screening sites,” keeping in mind that the original end date had actually already been held off when.
” All 13 sites were offered an extra 30 days from the original shift date in May,” Giroir said, “and I personally talked to Governors from all 5 states included, and/or their management designees, who agreed that it was the appropriate time to shift out of the initial 13 sites and into the thousands of brand-new screening options.”
In a follow-up call with the media Wednesday afternoon, Giroir stressed that the fate of these sites– making up a small portion of overall testing capability across the country– will be up to the states, who can administer them or close them as they choose.
” The federal government simply sent 11 billion dollars to the states and tribes in order