FEMA Awards More Than $18 Million to Connecticut Entities for COVID Costs

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending over $26 million to the State of Connecticut and two hospitals to reimburse them for costs incurred responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two Public Assistance grants totaling $6,684,642 will go to the Connecticut Department of Housing for the cost of providing non-congregate sheltering to homeless populations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 

The department contracted with Hartford Airport Hotel LLC (Best Western – Hartford) to rent one hundred twenty hotel rooms; Milford Enterprises, LLC (Motel 6 – Milford) to make twenty-six of the units in the facility available; and the non-profits Pacific House Inc. and United Way of Connecticut Inc to provide shelter to high-risk individuals. Most hotel rates averaged between $60 and $70 a night.

A Public Assistance grant of $8,836,995 will provide federal funding to the Connecticut Department of Public Health for contracting to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to the general public.

The department contracted with SEMA4 OpCo (Mount Sinai Genonomics) to provide registration, testing and results for 93,021 tests at a cost of $95 per test.

In Danbury, a Public Assistance grant of $1,487,573 will reimburse Danbury Hospital for the additional costs of operating safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, including purchasing cleaning and disinfection supplies and medical supplies specific to providing care to COVID-19 patients.

Finally, in Torrington a $1,080,100 Public Assistance grant will go to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital for the cost of setting up temporary space adjacent to the 109-bed, general acute care community hospital to cope with the surge of COVID-19 patients.

The hospital rented equipment and contracted services to build the space, which included generators an emergency department triage site, trailers, portable toilets, signage, heaters, electrical work in the parking lot to install a temporary CAT scan, and security services.

“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist to the State of Connecticut and these two hospitals with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments – as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities – for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation’s ongoing recovery.”

FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.

So far, FEMA has provided more than $906 million in Public Assistance grants to Connecticut to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.