WILMINGTON, Del. – Delaware Governor John Carney, U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester today announced that Delaware will receive $11,021,366 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve the First State’s public health workforce and infrastructure.
State officials say the CDC nationwide is awarding $3.2 billion to help state, local, and territorial jurisdictions across the United States to provide the people, services, and systems needed to promote and protect health in U.S. communities. This includes $3 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act, a legislation supported by Senators Carper, Coons, and Congresswoman Blunt Rochester. They say the $3 billion will go towards jurisdictions to recruit, retain, and train their workforce, including critical frontline public health workers such as epidemiologists, contact tracers, laboratory scientists, community health workers, and data analysts.
“Our public health workers have an important role in our state, and we are grateful for the services they provide to help keep Delawareans healthy,” said Governor Carney. “The last few years highlighted the impact that our public health team can make in our communities. These federal funds will strengthen Delaware’s public health system and enable us to recruit and train more workers to deliver key services across our state. Thank you to the CDC and to our congressional delegation for this funding, and for supporting Delaware’s public health infrastructure.”
“The pandemic has shown us just how important strong and durable public health care infrastructure is in the First State,” said Senator Carper. “This funding – made possibly by the American Rescue Plan that I was proud to support –will go toward retaining and attracting employees into this critical sector of our workforce. As our public health systems face continuous obstacles, I am grateful that our state will be able to take the steps necessary to ensure Delaware is resilient against all future health crises.”
“When I welcomed U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Delaware last week to speak directly with healthcare providers, we heard how healthcare providers have grappled with the turmoil of the past few years and how those challenges have been shared by their colleagues in public health,” said Senator Coons. “This grant provides the funding necessary to strengthen public health and will equip those working in our health care community here in Delaware and throughout our nation with the resources these workers need to properly support the communities that they so proudly serve.”
“Maintaining public health is essential to the wellbeing of our state, and Delaware’s Division of Public Health (DPH) is front and center in this charge,” said Rep. Blunt Rochester, member of the House Health Subcommittee.
She says the CDC will infuse federal dollars, including funds from the American Rescue Plan into DPH to strengthen and expand its public health infrastructure. With this funding, DPH will focus on recruiting, retaining, and training its workforce so that its reach can be expanded across the state to administer vital public health services to more Delawareans, according to Rep. Rochester.
“We are grateful to CDC and our congressional delegation for continuing to support the critical work of our public health team, which works tirelessly day in and day out to serve and protect the residents of our state,” said the Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Molly Magarik.
According to Magarick, this additional federal funding will allow us to expand the current public health workforce, build on the improved infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic, and strengthen the capabilities to ensure workers can rapidly respond to any emerging health threat in the future.