Covid funding from the White House could end for people who don’t have health insurance

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The White House has said that funding for the COVID-19 program that helped people without health insurance could dwindle come next week.

A broad government spending bill was declined by Congress last week which included more Covid funding for testing, treatment and vaccinations.

The White House said that shipments of antibody treatments to states are planned to be reduced by 30%.

Officials have said that they have enough vaccines for people that are immunocompromised to receive a fourth dose.

Unfortunately, if more of the population ends up needing an additional dose, the federal government might not have the funding to support that.

Santa Cruz and Monterey County get money from Congress, but it's not their only source of funding.

“We are in communication with the California Department of Public Health on funding sources and we will do our best to deliver the level of service for public health that we can with the funding that we have, as long as we have the funding," said Dr. Edward Moreno, Monterey County Health Officer.

“We have gotten funding from the state and I believe that the state will continue to be supporting us," said Dr. David Ghilarducci, Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer.

Both of these counties have been experiencing low Covid cases, but local health officials said they're prepared for another possible surge.

“We’re in a relative lull right now with Omicron coming down, but I think it’s safe to assume that we’re going to have another surge. Usually it’s about a three or four month kind of interval between the surges," said Dr. Ghilarducci. “I think the important thing is that we don’t wait for a surge before we react. We have to be proactive.”

Deltacron has popped up on the United States radar, accounting for a quarter of new cases, according to the CDC.

Deltacron has been considered more infectious than other strains but as it stands research has indicated it's not as deadly.

“We will continue to collect specimens, receive specimens from our various partners and run those for typing the variants here in Monterey County," said Dr. Moreno.

Regardless of how little or big the next surge could be, local health officials said it's still important for people to get vaccinated and boosted.

“Our focus is to continue to encourage it but also to make sure that those who are willing to get vaccinated have ready access to do so," said Dr. Ghilarducci

Santa Cruz County hasn't detected the Deltacron variant while Monterey County has confirmed two cases.