BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $4.1 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the Wentworth Institute of Technology for the cost of testing students, faculty and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $4,092,272 in Public Assistance grants will reimburse the private technology and engineering university in Boston for the cost of purchasing 92,330 tests between March 2020 and July 2022, including setting up a testing hub on the campus and contracting for staff to administer COVID-19 testing, clinical surveillance, and temperature scanning.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the Wentworth Institute of Technology with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our institutions of higher education to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to their success, and to our success as a nation.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.5 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.