HYANNIS – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reimbursing the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency $37,821,788 for costs incurred by five Alternate Care Sites to ensure hospital capacity during the spring’s surge of COVID-19 cases.
The sites include Cape Cod Healthcare and Joint Base Cape Cod, among others across the state.
The Alternate Care Sites supplemented state healthcare systems by providing additional patient beds when projected hospitalizations exceeded capacity.
Shelter materials, utilities, staff services, and access to and removal of potable water were also provided to facilities by MEMA.
The reimbursement requests by clinical partners for costs incurred will be made separately to FEMA in coming weeks, said the agency.
FEMA’s Public Assistance Grant program is funding the reimbursement grant.
The goal of the program is to reimburse communities for actions taken in the immediate response and recovery from a disaster.
Eligible applicants include states, federally recognized tribal governments, U.S. territories, and local governments.
“This critical FEMA funding provided essential workers’ salaries, significant supplies including linen and laundry services, meals and provided MEMA the ability to staff personnel on the ground at every site, monitoring the work that was being executed,” said Regional Administrator and Federal Coordinating Officer Captain Russ Webster, who oversees FEMA’s operations in Massachusetts, in a statement.
FEMA has obligated funding of the project directly to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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