Frustration, Resignation, And Horror: US Govt. To End Funding & Support For 13 Testing Sites As New Cases Are Increasing In 20+ States

Josh Kovensky, Talking Points Memo, June 23, 2020:

The Trump administration is ending funding and support for local COVID-19 testing sites around the country this month, as cases and hospitalizations are skyrocketing in many states.

The federal government will stop providing money and support for 13 sites across five states which were originally set up in the first months of the pandemic to speed up testing at the local level.

Local officials and public health experts expressed a mixture of frustration, resignation, and horror at the decision to let federal support lapse. ...

As the pandemic began to batter the United States in March, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency began to deploy Community-Based Testing Sites around the country.

The sites provide testing kits and contract with laboratories and a call center to notify patients of their results. The federal government covers the costs of the contracts, while providing staff.

The Trump administration previously attempted to end support for the testing sites running under the same program in early April. The government reversed the move after a public outcry, extending the sites. The extension is now coming to an end. ...

President Trump has expressed his opposition to expanding testing, most recently in a tweet Tuesday morning.