Coronavirus: Over 80,000 medical workers apply to help run pop-up facilities in California, governor says

Facebook CEO reportedly funds "tens of millions of dollars" worth of stipends for health care workers volunteering in the state

More than 81,000 people have applied to help care for Covid-19 patients in pop-up facilities built throughout California as the state sees an increasing outbreak of the novel virus, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday.

The governor provided an update about the newly-announced California Health Corps initiative, a recruiting effort that calls on retired health care workers, medical school students and people licensed in other states to assist in running operations and overseeing care at the new facilities.

That initiative is funded with “deep support” from the federal government, currently available state resources and injections of funding from the private sector, Mr Newsom noted on Monday.

He added that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently contributed “tens of millions of dollars for stipends” so those medical workers accepted into the California Health Corps can pay for housing and meals while assisting in the state.

The website promoting the new effort had only been up for about a week by Monday, when Mr Newsom made the announcement. He added that all workers approved to join the initiative will have gone through a “very comprehensive” vetting process done by an in-house team.

Mr Newsom described the latest figures of volunteers as a “staggering number of individuals” and said that his administration initially anticipated less than 40,000 applicants.

Nationwide, there have been more than 337,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the death toll has surpassed 10,000 people. Health officials have estimated those figures are likely far higher, however, citing significant issues the US had in distributing testing kits throughout the country in the initial months of the pandemic.

On Saturday, Mr Newsom announced a new, statewide task force to help “flatten the curve” and keep local hospital systems within capacity by slowing the spread of transmissions.

“We are now in a position where I can confidently say it’s a new day”, the governor said.

At least 126,700 people have been tested throughout the state, the governor confirmed during the weekend, acknowledging the hampered efforts for expansive testing at both the state and federal level.

“The testing space has been a challenging one for us and I own that,” he said. “And I have a responsibility as your governor to do better and do more testing in the state of California.”