WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it’s investing $10 billion to help support Covid-19 testing for teachers, school staff and students in an effort to get schools reopened for in-person learning.
It’s all part of President Joe Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Prespardness.
“COVID-19 testing is critical to saving lives and restoring economic activity. As part of the Biden Administration’s National Strategy, HHS will continue to expand our capacity to get testing to the individuals and the places that need it most, so we can prevent transmission of the virus and defeat the pandemic,” said HHS Acting Secretary Norris Cochran.
How much money each state gets varies. In a release Wednesday, the agency said the state of Tennessee will receive $205,691,372; Arkansas will recieve $90,894,777; and Mississippi will recieve $89,640,149.
The money will be used by the states to create screening testing programs at schools. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with state and local health departments will help schools establish and implement these programs, the HHS said.
The goal is to have schools open “in the remaining months of this school year.”
The news comes as the CDC considers changing its social distancing guidelines in classrooms. On Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told lawmakers that recent studies out of Massachusetts found that if students wear masks, three feet of spacing is safe, CNBC reported.
The CDC is till combing through the research and a date on when a decision could be made has not been set.
At the same time, health officials are also worried about a 10 percent rise in new cases. Covid-19 cases have increased in recent days and weeks in 18 states, including Mississippi. There have been 29,374,758 cases and 534,099 deaths in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker.
