California would spend $2.7 billion on new efforts to respond to the surge in COVID-19 cases, including additional testing capacity and assistance to hospitals, under a budget proposal Gov. Most of the early funding would go to expand testing programs, with the remaining portion spent on virus response efforts inside California prisons. To date, most of the cost of California’s pandemic response efforts has been covered by the federal government. An additional $2.3 billion in state costs through the end of September were reimbursed by the federal government. State officials believe many of the expenses in the $2.7-billion proposal will also be reimbursed by the federal government.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 08, 2022 23:43 UTC