BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $4.3 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse UMass Medical School for the cost of testing students, staff and faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $4,340,255 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School – a public medical school in Worcester – for tests administered between May 2020 and December 2021.
Contractors performed 1,846 nucleic acid amplification tests and 181,500 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests during that time period to allow safe opening and operation of the school.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist UMass Medical School 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.