DENVER – FEMA has approved $7.5 million in additional Public Assistance funding for the COVID-19 response in Utah. The assistance was made available under a major disaster declaration issued April 4, 2020. FEMA has provided more than $284 million for the Utah COVID-19 response to date with this additional funding.
FEMA awarded the grant funds to the Utah Department of Health to reimburse them for the cost of providing COVID-19 test kits, sample collection services and lab processing of tests at no cost to the public. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Utah Department of Health used contracted services to collect more than 15,600 samples and process more than 128,000 diagnostic tests. This award covers the cost of COVID-19 testing from May 24, 2021 to January 31, 2022.
For the COVID-19 response, FEMA has simplified the Public Assistance application and funding process to address the magnitude of this event and to allow state and local governments to receive eligible funding more quickly. These reimbursements play a critical role as state, tribal and local officials work to assist their communities during this response.
To fully support this essential work, the President authorized provision of FEMA Public Assistance at 100 percent federal funding through July 1, 2022. Beginning July 2, 2022, the federal cost share for COVID-19 projects will be 90 percent of the eligible cost.
Additional information about FEMA’s Public Assistance program can be found at www.fema.gov/assistance/public.
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