The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $10 billion in Covid-19 relief funding to ramp up screening testing to help schools reopen.
The department says in a news release that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide $10 billion to states to support Covid-19 screening testing for teachers, staff and students to assist schools in reopening safely for in-person instruction.
This funding will be able to be deployed quickly as part of a strategy to help get schools open in the remaining months of this school year.
In addition to ensuring diagnostic testing of symptomatic and exposed individuals, serial screening testing will help schools identify infected individuals without symptoms who may be contagious so that prompt action can be taken to prevent further transmission.
The Food and Drug Administration has released a fact sheet to assist schools, workplaces, communities, and others looking to establish testing programs to screen asymptomatic individuals as they are selecting a test for screening.
These actions are intended to expand the availability of tests authorized for screening asymptomatic individuals, help bolster existing and new testing programs, and increase consumer access to testing.
Last month, Health and Services and the Department of Defense announced that it was allocating $650 million to expand testing opportunities for K-8 schools and underserved congregate settings, such as homeless shelters, directly through new regional coordinating centers.
These coordinating centers will organize the distribution of Covid-19 testing supplies and partner with laboratories across the country.
