Governor Newsom declined to elaborate today on the resignation of
the state’s leading public health official, Dr. Sonia Angell. Dr.
Angell submitted her resignation Sunday night, nearly two weeks
after the state first revealed a major technical glitch affecting
positive COVID-19 case data.
The Governor insisted that the backlog of data in the state’s
CalREDIE laboratory reporting system had been processed over the
weekend and sent to counties for validation and demographic
details before being publicly available within the week.
Dr. Angell had only been the state’s top public health official
for 10 months – five of those during the unprecedented worldwide
coronavirus pandemic. She served as the state’s Public Health
Officer with the power to issue statewide public health orders as
well as the Director of the California Department of Public
Health (CDPH).
In her wake, the Governor has appointed Sandra Shewry as interim
CDPH Director, and elevated Dr. Erica Pan from state
epidemiologist to state health officer. Ms. Shewry has extensive
experience in health care policy and previously served as
Director of the former California Department of Health and
Welfare. Dr. Pan was most recently the local Health Officer in
Alameda County, and will be an asset to the state’s COVID-19
battle.
