California governor activates National Guard to boost COVID testing capacity
CBSN
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday he is activating the California National Guard to add COVID-19 testing sites and boost capacity. More than 200 guard members are being deployed to 50 sites to help with clinical staffing and crowd control, the governor said.
"This new action is on top of the existing 6,000 testing sites that have been set up across the state, the recent demand-based expansion of hours at state-operated sites and the 9.6 million tests that the state has distributed to schools since early December," his office said in a news release.
The announcement comes as people face difficulty finding coronavirus test kits in many parts of California and delays in getting results — causing increasing frustration and contributing to a surge of infections that in just two weeks more than doubled the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19.
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