BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending nearly $2.4 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse Tufts University for the cost of testing students, faculty and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $2,397,133 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the private university in Medford for the cost of contracting to administer 107,354 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at its four campuses in the greater Boston area between August 2021 and June 2022.
The grant also covers the costs of purchasing and distributing some 18,212 home test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks to students and faculty, as well as contracting for a delivery service to transport PCR test specimens to a testing facility.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Tufts University 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.