San Diego County will end troubled COVID-19 hotel program, remove guests by March 31

San Diego County will end troubled COVID-19 hotel program, remove guests by March 31

San Diego County will stop using hotels as COVID-19 shelters by March 31 … because the federal money used to pay for it is expected to run out, said Housing Director David Estrella. … But pulling the plug on this public health initiative could be a big mistake that spells disaster for vulnerable populations, said Sanghyuk Shin, a University of California, Irvine [associate professor of nursing,] epidemiologist and public health expert. “We really need to expand those types of services ASAP to really prevent a huge surge and overrunning of the hospitals,” he said, adding that homeless shelters “are just ripe for superspreading events.”