California’s Public Health Chief Steps Down After Disclosure of Gigantic COVID-19 Records Backlog

California Faces First Case Of "Community Acquired" Coronavirus

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SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 27: California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell (L) speaks as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (R) looks on during a news conference at the California Department of Public Health on February 27, 2020 in Sacramento, California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined State health officials to an update to the public about the state's response to the Coronavirus known as COVID-19 a day after a possible first case of person-to-person transmission was reported in Northern California.

Days after the release of hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 records by officials, the top public health official of California stepped down from office, Sunday.

Her resignation is followed by claims from the state's Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday that the said records were never reported to his office. However, during a news conference about the sudden resignation of California's Public Health Chief Dr. Sonia Angell, Newsom refused to answer if he asked her to quit her job.

Instead of answering the question directly, the governor only stated that everyone is accountable for the roles that they play amid this crisis. He stated that people consider the fact that he accepted the resignation.

According to NBC Bay Area, Angell did not state the reason for her immediate resignation. Angell was only placed into office less than a year ago.

However, many have linked her abrupt decision to leave her office to last week's disclosure of more than 300,000 COVID-19 records that were not processed. The records were revealed by Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services. According to Ghaly, the failure of Angelle's office to disclose the records has left several county health officials without the correct data on the transmission of the virus.

In a report by CBS, Ghaly connected the problem on the data disclosure to an outage of a computer server that happened last month. He also added that the Department of Public Health was not able to renew a certificate for the commercial laboratory which tests for COVID-19, Quest Diagnostics. He also added that the governor has already ordered a full investigation on the matter.

In addition, Ghaly stated that the backlog would be available in the next few days as they were already processed over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom expressed confidence that the backlogs will not affect the already downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases in the state. He also stated that the was already a 19% decline in hospitalizations and a 5% decline in ICU admissions over the past two weeks.

Termination and Resignation of US Public Health Officials

The resignation of Angell was announced amid the widespread terminations and resignations of several public health officials across the US. In a review by the Associated Press, at least 49 officials have quit or have been fired from their posts from 23 states since April.

Based on the review, many of the departures were connected to shutdowns and mask orders, while others quit because of family matters or because they felt like they were being underpaid despite being overworked.

One of the officials who stepped down from office was Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the health commissioner of New York City. She resigned last week after Mayor Bill de Blasio's office diminished the role of her department. Like Angell, she also did not state why she resigned, however, Mark Levine, chairman of NYC's health committee stated that Bartbot's departure was a hard hit to the fight for public health in the city.