SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As cities across the state of California prepare for a surge in coronavirus (COVID-19) patients that could start within the next three weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new initiative to help health care workers in the state.
Newsom has said time and time again, California health care workers are dealing with major shortages in protective equipment as they treat COVID-19 patients
On Monday, Newsom signed an executive order to expand the health care workforce and staff by recruiting health care professionals to address the COVID-19 surge.
All health care professionals with an active license, medical and nursing students, members of medical disaster response teams, public health professionals and even medical retirees in the state are encouraged to join the corps to assist.
HOW TO SIGN UP
Any medical and health care professionals interested in signup up can visit healthcorps.ca.gov for more information and to register for the California Health Corps.
"Medical doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, behavioral health scientists, pharmacists, EMTs, medical and administrative assistants, as well as certified nursing assistants are encouraged to step up and meet this moment to help California respond to the outbreak," Newsom said.
Expanding the health care workforce:
Gov. Newsom also signed an executive order that will temporarily expand the health care workforce and allow facilities to staff at least an additional 50,000 hospital beds that the state needs to treat COVID-19 patients.
“California’s health care workers are the heroes of this moment, serving on the front lines in the fight against this disease." Newsom said ."To treat the rising number of patients with COVID-19, our state needs more workers in the health care field to join the fight. If you have a background in health care, we need your help. Sign up at healthcorps.ca.gov.”
A copy of the Governor’s executive order can be found here, and the text of the order can be found here.
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Over the weekend, he said the number of people in ICU beds doubled in just one night, going from 200 on Friday to 410 on Saturday.
At this point, not only is the state looking for more beds to prepare for a surge, but Silicon Valley businesses are joining the effort to get ventilators up and running.
In an interview with ABC News over the weekend, Newsom highlighted the immediate need for equipment and other supplies. He said the items are being sourced from all over the world.
“We've got Richard Branson taking a 747 from Hong Kong into the Bay Area, we've got Elon Musk that was able to get 1,200 ventilators for us in 72 hours from overseas,” he said.
According to Newsom, the state is also facing a big shortage of N-95 masks.
“I've already distributed 31.7 million N-95 masks in the state and, I'm not making this up, we have on order, we wrote a check for 101 million [more masks],” he said.
So far, the state has gotten more than 4,000 extra ventilators. That's nearly half of the 10,000 state officials aim to get.
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