Earlier this week, Community Health of South Florida Inc. (CHI) received a $3,175,580 award from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration and Rural Health Network of Monroe County received $569,600.
The money will fund efforts to help the community battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an April 14 press conference, U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said it will go a long way to help the most needy by focusing on the clinics that are already serving them.
“It will increase the capacity of medical care for people of color, seniors, underserved, uninsured and those with pre-existing conditions,” she said. “As we heard earlier this week, those are the people hit the hardest from coronavirus. The national data shows a disturbing trend.” Many national news organizations have reported black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates.
CHI was the first to offer drive-through COVID-19 testing in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties and continues to do so.
“The funding we receive today will help us continue our efforts to keep Monroe County healthy,” said Rochelle Pearson, CEO of Rural Health Network.
CHI CEO Col. Brodey Hartley Jr. said that before the award was announced, he anticipated that his clinics in South Florida and the Keys anticipated a loss of revenue of more than $5 million.
Rep. Mucarsel-Powell and others on the virtual press conference spoke about the best ways to communicate effectively with the underserved. She said she’s proud of what South Florida has accomplished so far.
Gov. Ron DeSantis also held a press conference on April 14 at which he announced the imminent delivery of 1.2 million 3M procedure masks, 100,000 face shields and many other items of the PPE kit. The deal for the masks (55 million total) was struck between the federal government and U.S. company 3M, and the goods are coming from China. According to state Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, the masks are free to Florida. He also said he didn’t know the cost per mask.
“We’re going to buy it from whoever can sell it to us, as long as the product is real. We’re making decisions to get the equipment to first responders, the life-saving PPE that they need,” Moskowitz said.
DeSantis also said that the Florida National Guard has organized “strike teams” to test nursing homes — 10 teams of four soldiers each.
“I am also pushing for more testing. I want us to get to the place where we have tested 1 in every 100 Floridians,” DeSantis said.
