The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is providing $186 million in funding for state and local governments to conduct additional testing and surveillance of COVID-19 cases, particularly in "hot zones."
The funds will also be used for evaluating exposed or infected healthcare personnel through clinical interviews to better identify risk factors and protective factors for COVID-19 infection.
“Increasing the capacity of our nation’s public health infrastructure is critical to stopping the spread of COVID-19 in communities across this country,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D., in a statement. “These funds will augment core public health capabilities including surveillance and predictive analytics, laboratory capacity, qualified frontline deployers, and the ability to rapidly respond to emerging disease clusters in communities that currently have limited person to person spread of the virus.”
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The funding will supplement an existing cooperative agreement with a number of states that have been identified as hot zones for the virus as well as jurisdictions with accelerating numbers of COVID-19 cases, officials said. It will also supplement an existing cooperative agreement with state jurisdictions through the Emerging Infections Program to enhance surveillance capabilities.
The highest amounts of funding have been earmarked for jurisdictions in California and New York. In particular, $21.1 million was earmarked for the state of California and $7.4 million was set aside for Los Angeles County. Meanwhile, $9.6 million was granted for New York state and $6.4 million was allocated for New York City. Texas will receive an allocation of $18.1 million.