CDC addresses vulnerable communities 

Included in the funding announcement for schools was a $2.25 billion initiative to address health equity issues. The grant, funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will expand health services to help reduce COVID-19 health disparities.

CDC said the funding is the agency’s largest investment to date to support communities affected by COVID-19-related health disparities.

The two year grants will go to 108 public health departments for bolstered COVID-19 testing and contact tracing capabilities in underserved communities and populations, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural areas.

“Everyone in America should have equal opportunity to be as healthy as possible,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “This investment will be monumental in anchoring equity at the center of our nation’s COVID-19 response—and is a key step forward in bringing resources and focus to health inequities that have for far too long persisted in our country.”