Sonia Angell, MD, resigned from her role as director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer Aug. 9. She did not provide a reason for her departure, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Dr. Angell has been a visible California official during the pandemic, often appearing alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom during his news conferences.
Her unexpected resignation occurred two days after the state's health and human services department linked a data error that caused a significant undercount of coronavirus cases to human errors and a server outage affecting California's database for infectious disease reporting, according to the Bee.
The governor plans to appoint Sandra Shewry, an executive from the California Health Care Foundation, to replace Dr. Angell as acting director of the department, the Bee reports. Erica Pan, MD, will become the acting state public health officer.