WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced that Illinois will receive $473 million and a distribution of 620,000 testing swabs this month to expand COVID-19 testing efforts.The federal funding, provided through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),was approved by Congress as part of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. Congressional Democrats fought to ensure that this legislation included a total of $25 billion in new funding to help improve our nation’s coronavirus testing capabilities, which will be necessary for any safe reopening of our economy.
“Increasing our testing capacity is critical to the health of Illinoisans and the speed at which we can safely reopen the economy,” Durbin said. “I’m pleased Congress was able to come together on a bipartisan basis to provide this federal support, but there is more work to do. Senator Duckworth and I will continue to fight for additional federal resources, and urge the Trump Administration to develop a national strategic plan to effectively trace, control, and suppress the spread of the virus.”
“Gradually reopening our economy during a deadly pandemic that has already killed more than 80,000 Americans will require Illinois to have a robust and effective diagnostic testing and contact tracing system,” Duckworth said. “I’m proud to work with Senator Durbin to secure urgently needed federal funding to help Illinois ramp up its test and trace capabilities.”
Under this funding announcement, the Illinois Department of Public Health will receive $286.3 million and the Chicago Department of Public Health will receive $187.5 million.
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