The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $8.4 million to three Massachusetts entities to reimburse them for various costs incurred responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Boston, FEMA will award $4.8 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the Tufts Medical Center for the cost of overtime worked by its staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $4,768,199 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the teaching hospital in Boston affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine for the added costs associated with responding to the pandemic between January and September 2021.
During that time the medical center’s more than 2,000 budgeted employees worked 158,881 overtime hours to cope with the increased patient loads caused by the pandemic.
In Cambridge, FEMA will award more than $2.1 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the Cambridge Public Health Commission and Cambridge Health Alliance for the cost of contracting for additional staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $2,133,560 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the Cambridge Public Health Commission and Cambridge Health Alliance for the added costs associated with responding to the pandemic between April and June 2020.
During that time the Cambridge Health Alliance, a health network affiliated with Harvard Medical School and serving the communities north of Boston, increased staffing at its locations in Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett by contracting for nurses and other professionals in various roles.
A total of 60 contracted medical staff worked more than 18,000 hours for the network in emergency rooms, inpatient medical/surgical units, ICU and outpatient respiratory clinics.
In Lawrence, FEMA will award almost $1.5 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the City of Lawrence for the cost of providing test kits to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $1,488,738 Public Assistance grant will reimburse Lawrence for distributing test kits at 21 pop-up vaccination clinic sites in the city between January and June 2022.
The costs included purchasing materials, a canopy tent, colored key cable, economy ponchos, blue medium duty tarps and cable ties, as well as 114,652 COVID-19 antigen rapid home test kits.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist these Massachusetts entities with these costs," said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments - as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities - for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation’s ongoing recovery."
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 $2.4 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.
Additional information about FEMA’s Public Assistance program is available at https://www.fema.gov/public-assistance-local-state-tribal-and-non-profit. To learn more about the COVID-19 response in Massachusetts, please visit https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4496.
Source: Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency