Arizona will receive $500,000 in initial federal funding to help support the state in its response to COVID-19, the Arizona Department of Health Services said in a press release Wednesday.
ADHS will work with local health partners to evaluate the best uses of the funding to contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19, better known as coronavirus, in the state. According to the press release, the funding will help provide immediate access to the resources Arizona entities need to respond to future cases.
ADHS has not determined what resources they will be spending the funding on, said Chris Minnick, spokesperson for ADHS.
“The COVID-19 outbreak is evolving rapidly and this additional funding from the federal government will help public health agencies in Arizona to better respond to the outbreak,” Dr. Cara Christ, the ADHS director said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide the money through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The funding comes after ADHS announced Tuesday that a second presumptive case of coronavirus was tested positive in Arizona. That case is still waiting for a confirmed positive from the CDC.
READ MORE: Presumptive case of coronavirus confirmed in Maricopa County
The state currently only has two confirmed cases, with another five tests pending results. Thirty-four cases have been tested so far.
The first confirmed case, who is a member of the ASU community, has fully recovered, ADHS said Monday.
Eleven deaths have been caused by coronavirus in the U.S. as of March 4, the latest of which was in California according to The Associated Press.
Reach the reporter at wmyskow@asu.edu and follow @wmyskow on Twitter.
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Wyatt Myskow is the project manager at The State Press, where he oversees enterprise stories for the publication. He also works at The Arizona Republic, where he covers the cities of Peoria and Surprise.
