CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Homeland Security and Emergency Management division (DPS-HSEM) announced today that $7,252,111 in federal funding has been made available to the Minnesota Department of Health for costs related to the state’s response to COVID-19 under the federal disaster declaration of April 7, 2020.
This funding will reimburse the Minnesota Department of Health for costs to develop and execute a statewide public awareness campaign regarding COVID-19 testing and ways to reduce the spread of the virus. The grant funds also cover costs to lease and renovate an existing facility into an alternative care site to provide surge hospital bed capacity in the Minneapolis- St. Paul metro area due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“FEMA’s public assistance program is a critical resource for communities affected by COVID-19,” said Kevin M. Sligh, acting regional administrator, FEMA Region 5. “These grant funds have helped ensure medical services remained available due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and also supported the state’s efforts to communicate important health safety information to the public during the pandemic.”
“This funding allowed us to alert Minnesotans to the safety measures they could take to keep themselves and their loved ones safe as the pandemic first took hold,” said DPS-HSEM Director Joe Kelly. “We are thankful we will be reimbursed to secure an alternate care site at Presbyterian Homes-Langton Place in Roseville, which was established in the event Minnesota hospital surge capacities became overextended.”
FEMA provides a 100 percent federal share of eligible reimbursable expenses for this project.
FEMA’s Public Assistance Program provides funding to local government jurisdictions and eligible private non-profits for the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged infrastructure as well as costs incurred for emergency actions taken to protect lives or property. To learn more, visit FEMA’s website at www.fema.gov/public-assistance-local-state-tribal-and-non-profit. For more information about FEMA’s COVID-19 vaccine support efforts, visit www.fema.gov/disasters/coronavirus/vaccine-support.
FEMA's mission is helping people before, during, and after disasters.