Sacramento County unveils $69 million spending plan to fight coronavirus

A week after being criticized for failing to spend federal coronavirus emergency funds on COVID-19 health issues, Sacramento County officials are now proposing to tap $69 million of those funds to improve their virus fight on several fronts — including buying syringes, vials and storage coolers to offer county residents faster access to immunization shots once a vaccine is approved.

Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson said he hopes to see a reliable COVID-19 vaccine available by early next year, and wants the county to be able to offer some people vaccine shots right away rather than rely solely on the federal or state governments to organize what will be a massive and potentially unwieldy immunization effort.

“If the way the federal government has been operating (on COVID) is any evidence, I’m concerned about how much preparation” they are going to put into a national immunization program, Beilenson said.

States and local leaders across the nation complained they struggled to get federal support on COVID-19 testing this spring and again this summer amid a shortage of materials.

“We’ve learned our lesson,” Beilenson said. “I can see the federal government not getting enough syringes.”

He said the county could potentially offer vaccine shots itself, and could partner with health care systems and pharmacies to provide them with some materials needed to administer the vaccine.

The county Board of Supervisors will vote on two sets of health department funding requests at meetings Tuesday and Wednesday. The money would come from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the federal emergency funding source to help local governments compensate for lost revenues due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

“As I made clear last week, the Board of Supervisors will consider, deliberate and appropriate the resources necessary to protect public health in response to COVID-19,” Board Chairman Phil Serna said in a text message to The Sacramento Bee. Serna last week asked health officials to make a formal funding request.

Allocations of CARES Act money

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the county’s budget hard, causing an estimated $170 million in lost tax revenue.

Last week, the county came under fire when it was disclosed that it had received $181 million in CARES Act money but had spent less than 1% of it on the public health efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. Instead, county officials had transferred $104 million of the coronavirus emergency funding to the Sheriff’s Office in what county officials called a budget “swap.”

During a contentious and confused supervisors meeting last week, County Executive Navdeep Gill said that swap freed up money that otherwise would have gone into the sheriff’s budget to be held for future virus-related use by the county. Officials said it was an advance and not new spending.

“Revenue reductions of this magnitude, if not mitigated in some way, would result in budget reductions to virtually all general fund departments on the scale of those required during the Great Recession,” Gill said.

Gill said the U.S. Treasury Department explicitly allowed the federal funding to be used for the payroll of existing public safety and public health employees “whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency.”

But the disclosure came as health officials struggled with two months of rising COVID-19 infections and deaths in Sacramento County and in California, as well as complaints that they have not reached out enough to at-risk communities.

After that meeting, Gill and other county leaders told health officials to come up with a concrete request, saying they were committed to funding efforts health officials needed money for.

On Tuesday, health officials will ask for $24 million in retroactive funding for several ongoing efforts. Then on Wednesday, health officials will ask the board for another $45 million for a variety of expenditures.

The county already signed a $13 million deal with a private company, StemExpress, to increase virus testing efforts. The Folsom-based firm said he will return test results within 72 hours.

What health officials are asking for

Officials say the $69 million would be spent this year for the coronavirus fight. They would then request more funding next year to continue what they say the expect to be a public health issue until vaccinations at some point bring the virus under control.

▪ Funding for a program with the Sierra Health Foundation for setting up a coronavirus hiring program that will include “virus navigators” to visit small businesses and advise them on how to obey state and local health rules.

▪ Educational outreach to various communities, including the Latino community.

▪ Funding to prepare for community vaccination for flu season, “as well as prepare to receive and administer the COVID-19 vaccine, once it is made available,” according to a staff report.

▪ Money for more testing for vulnerable communities, first responders, essential workers and people living and working in congregate settings.

▪ Funds to hire more staff, including microbiologists, contact tracers, test processors, and community education workers.

This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 8:35 AM.