Delaware’s Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) is getting more federal money for its COVID pandemic response.
$85.6 million is on its way from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help cover money Delaware has spent to handle the pandemic.
DEMA’s community relations coordinator Jeff Sands says this money will cover one specific part of that response.
“This is reimbursement underneath the major disaster declaration for the COVID-19 response," sand said. "So what this does is - this reimburses the State primarily for the testing program that we’ve been running for the past several years. And this money is just going to go back into the State funds. FEMA had agreed previously to a 100% cost-share; so basically, they’re funding all this. And this is just reimbursement for that.”
Sands says since May 2020 the state has worked to make sure testing was readily available in an equitable way - especially for long-term care residents, elderly Delawareans and members of low-income and minority communities.
“One of the goals with our testing program and with any programs that we’re doing at the State level is to try to make things equitable," said Sands. "We're trying to make sure that the people that are in vulnerable populations have access to testing and to high-quality care; so that includes skilled-nursing facilities, that includes the senior population - folks that are maybe in lower economic situations.”
The state also created an Urgent Response Testing program to make testing resources quickly available in response to COVID outbreaks in communities.
Last November, President Biden announced that funding to support all eligible COVID-19 work would continue at a 100-percent federal cost-share through April 1st of this year.
