Miami-Dade spending in covid war nears $900 million

Written by Miami Today on January 10, 2023
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com

Advertisement

Miami-Dade spending in covid war nears 0 million

Miami-Dade County spent more than $868 million through July 1, 2022, for emergency purchases in battling Covid-19, according to legislation coming before a county committee.

The Health, Emergency Management and Governmental Affairs Committee is being asked this week to ratify $67 million of those purchases.

As of Nov. 14, the county had been reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $285.7 million for Covid-19 expenses through the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the recommendation to the committee says. Almost $178 million was reimbursed through the Coronavirus Relief Fund of the CARES Act, which ended Dec. 31, 2021, and is now being reconciled for a final application of eligible expenditures.

Among county expenditures related to covid, the largest category by far was $253.8 million for testing and laboratory services, including tents and other supplies for testing locations. In the first six months of last year alone, these cost the county $62.8 million.

The second-largest category of expenditures was $253.8 million for meals. From March 16, 2020, through June 30, 2021, more than 25 million meals funded by the county for elderly residents were distributed.

The county also spent $43.5 million for covid-related staffing. This included nurses for sheltered residents and temporary staff for invoice processing.

The county spent $37.3 million on transportation services that included services to assist with on-demand transportation and vehicles such as trucks to move Covid-19 supplies for distribution around testing sites. The tents alone cost another $802,000.

Costs of vaccination were $6.8 million, with $4.8 million spent on hand sanitizers, including sanitizing stations mounted on walls or stands. Air filtration systems cost another $5.2 million to purify indoor air.

Consulting costs related to covid were $14.7 million for FEMA disaster recovery, veteran housing and basic needs programs, the residential landlord program, transit commuter counting analysis, feeding operations, and decontamination project monitoring and procedures.

Fever detection cost $1.4 million for cameras and screening equipment in county buildings.

Masks cost $18.4 million, gloves more than $4.6 million, and gowns $675,000. Spraying equipment cost $1 million.

The recommendation notes that “the county intends to pursue reimbursement for these emergency purchases under the FEMA and CARES Act, where feasible and permissible.”

FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Web Times is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – webtimes.uk. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a Comment