Georgia is set to receive nearly $14.8 million in federal funding to support its response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.
The funding comes from an $8.3 billion emergency spending package President Donald Trump signed last week. The bill earmarked nearly $1 billion for the CDC to aid state and local health departments fighting the disease, known as COVID-19.
“Our state, local, tribal and territorial public health partners are on the front lines of the COVID-19 response," CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a statement. "These funds will allow public health leaders to implement critical steps necessary to contain and mitigate spread of the virus in communities across the country."
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The announcement came the same day Gov. Brian Kemp asked state lawmakers to add $100 million in emergency funding to the fiscal 2020 mid-year budget to assist the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Public Health.
Georgia previously received $250,000 from the CDC to fight the outbreak.
The CDC recently issued new guidelines that allow for anyone with a doctor's order to be tested for COVID-19.
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the new guidance will also allow labs to combine patient samples, leading to more patients being screened per day.
“This new process will increase throughput in labs, and also help alleviate a looming shortage in the reagents that are used by labs to prep patient samples for testing,” Gottlieb tweeted Wednesday.
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