FEMA Makes Funding Available to Assist Local Governments with COVID-19 Response

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is making funding available to assist local governments with their public health and emergency management activities supporting the prevention of, preparation for, and response to the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency.

Through this funding opportunity, FEMA will award funding to support planning and operational readiness for COVID-19 preparedness and response, development of tools and strategies for prevention, preparedness, and response; and ongoing communication and coordination among federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial partners throughout the response.

FEMA encourages funding to be used for mitigation activities related to slowing the spread of COVID-19, integration of emergency management and public health operations, collection and display of public, private, and governmental data of hospital bed and ventilator capacity and usage; collection and display of PPE inventories and establishment of burn rates to forecast future needs; planning for alternate care sites; and identifying all sources to surge medical professionals.

Funding also can be used to assist emergency managers with implementing community lifelines to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The lifelines concept simplifies incident information to provide decision makers with clearly identified impacts to critical community services and root causes that inform response and recovery actions.

For more information about applying for FEMA funding, contact Brittany Kelly, Public Assistance Program Manager with the S.C. Emergency Management Division at 803 367-7756 or bkelly@emd.sc.gov.