Alameda County to start paying infected people to quarantine

The effort is aimed at people who would not be able to afford to stay home and who are ineligible for unemployment benefits or sick leave.|
AMY GRAFF AND ERIC TING
SFGATE

To help curb the spread of the coronavirus, Alameda County is piloting a program to pay people who test positive for COVID-19 to stay home from work.

The effort is aimed at people who would not be able to afford to stay home and who are ineligible for unemployment benefits or sick leave.

Alameda County supervisors approved a $1,250 stipend and health clinics testing for COVID-19 will refer people who could benefit from the program.

"So literally every single person that we have spoken to through our contract tracing program, they have all asked for either food, help with rent, or access to be enrolled in healthcare," Andrea Schwab-Galindo, CEO of Hayward's Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, told CBS News.

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