Rep. Harley Rouda (D-CA) has teamed up with other California representatives to send a letter to Orange County’s Board of Supervisors, questioning how the county has used billions in federal COVID-19 funds that were meant for testing, contact tracing, and preventing positive coronavirus cases.

Rouda and his colleagues said they were concerned due to testing errors and increasing COVID-19 cases in the area, especially after the county’s health department lumped 30,000 serology tests, which measure for COVID antibodies and not active COVID infections, in with diagnostic tests.

“Spiking infection, ICU occupancy, and mortality rates are gravely concerning — especially after recent developments that the County’s Health Care Agency incorrectly added 30,000 serology tests to the diagnostic test counts over several weeks,” the letter said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the agency inflated its coronavirus test numbers by adding 30,000 serology tests into the cumulative testing data, which officials said are not to be included. The cumulative testing numbers are only supposed to contain data from diagnostic tests, which test to see if people have been infected with the virus at the moment of testing. 

The agency’s director said the accurate testing numbers were supposed to be uploaded to a new website, but due to glitches within the system and officials’ attention on reopening the county, there was a delay in the new website’s launch.

This led to the inaccurate data being available to the public for weeks, painting a distorted picture of the county’s amount of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, according to representatives. 

“The erroneous inflation of COVID-19 testing data, top public health officials’ resignations, and pervasive difficulty accessing tests have raised serious questions,” Rouda and the other legislators wrote.

California Democrats have asked county officials to provide detailed explanations on how the county has used the funds given to them under the CARES Act for COVID-19 related expenses, like personal protective equipment, food assistance, and disease control. 

According to the letter, an estimated $3.8 billion were provided to local governments in Orange County through the Heroes Act, which was backed by California legislators, including $1.8 billion for the county itself. Another $554 million was given to the county to cover expenses meant to prevent, test and treat COVID-19 under the CARES Act. 

“We write today to ask how those dollars are being used to protect the lives and livelihoods of Orange County working families and small businesses,” wrote the representatives.

The letter also states that Orange County is working on a new program intended to improve testing for essential workers. Representatives have asked for further details including how the program will be paid for and how will this affect availability of testing as a whole as well as the results timeliness for essential workers and other county residents.