The Trump administration has laid off dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its latest round of cuts, including "disease detectives," high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The White House and the CDC did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Affected workers were sent layoff notices via email shortly before 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT) on Friday, informing them that their duties were now deemed unnecessary or "virtually identical" to those being performed elsewhere in the agency, the newspaper said.
The exact number of affected CDC workers is yet to be confirmed, it said.
The ongoing U.S. government shutdown has sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home, with staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, affected.