WASHINGTON

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) laid off employees Saturday evening across several major agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a report published on Sunday.

The latest round of job cuts suggests the layoffs extend beyond earlier reports of reductions at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the Trump administration moves to downsize the federal government.

Among those affected were employees responsible for evaluating the safety of medical devices and overseeing Affordable Care Act exchanges, memos reviewed by Bloomberg revealed.

The full extent of the layoffs remains unclear, and as of Sunday morning, neither HHS nor the White House, CMS, CDC, or FDA had responded to requests for comment, Bloomberg reported.

According to the report, the notices were contained in emails with the subject line “Read this email immediately” that arrived for some time around 7 pm on Saturday.

"The letters stated that the employees were 'not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency,'" said the report.

Employees were informed via email that they would be placed on administrative leave and receive four weeks of pay.

The notices, signed by Jeffrey Anoka, the acting head of human resources at HHS, came in the wake of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday mandating "large-scale" federal workforce reductions.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the head of HHS on Thursday, though the leadership positions at the FDA, CMS, and CDC remain unfilled.