Senators Collins, King Announce Maine to Receive More Than $5 Million to Support COVID-19 Response
Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced today that Maine has been awarded $5,075,000 to support the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding distributed today is part of the $631 million for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC) cooperative agreement that was included in the CARES Act that Senators Collins and King voted for.
“The dedicated public health professionals throughout our state have been instrumental in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement. “This funding will assist Maine’s efforts to expand testing capacity, improve contact tracing, and enhance containment efforts, helping to protect the health and safety of Mainers and those working on the front lines.”
In cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Maine will use this funding to:
- Establish or enhance the ability to aggressively identify cases, conduct contact tracing and follow up, as well as implement appropriate containment measures;
- Improve morbidity and mortality surveillance;
- Control COVID-19 in high-risks settings and protect vulnerable or high-risk populations; and,
- Work with health care systems to manage and monitor system capacity.
Senator Collins, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, announced that Maine would receive at least $16,295,844 for COVID-19 testing under the Paycheck Protection Program & Health Care Enhancement Act that passed the Senate earlier this week.
