Trump admin lays off dozens of CDC workers amid govt shutdown: Report

The laid off workers include "disease detectives," high-ranking scientists, and the entire Washington office.

The Trump administration has laid off dozens of employees at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in its latest round of layoffs, including "disease detectives," high-ranking scientists, and the entire Washington office, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

A sign for the CDC sits outside of their facility at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Roybal campus(REUTERS)

HT could not independently verify the report, and an official comment from the US government is awaited.

Earlier, President Donald Trump said he was making good on threats to fire thousands of federal workers amid a government shutdown.

His administration reportedly made job cuts across departments, including Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce.

“It’ll be a lot, and we’ll announce the numbers over the next couple of days, but it’ll be a lot of people,” Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office.