Key Messages
- In keeping with President Biden’s commitment to equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced several COVID-19 testing, prevention and vaccination efforts.
- HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently announced the availability of $250million in grants to connect vulnerable and underserved communities with trusted health voices.
- HRSA is making nearly $1 billion available to rural health providers to expand COVID-19 testing and prevention as well as increase the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in those communities.
- HHS and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) joined forces to increase COVID-19 services, including vaccinations to communities, to include HUD assisted households and people experiencing homelessness.
- Working with state governments, FEMA will continue to provide federal support to community vaccination centers, including supplemental vaccine allocation to pilot sites.
- As of May 5, there were 23 active or temporarily closed federal community vaccination center pilot sites and 69 mobile pop-up sites in 16 states. Additionally, there are 11 mobile vaccination units deployed to support states and the Indian Health Service. The federal community vaccination center pilot sites have administered more than 4.8 million vaccinations. The mobile units have delivered more than 29,000 vaccinations.
- Although FEMA transitioned management of the federal community vaccination center pilot sites in California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas to the states, the agency continues to support those sites with federal personnel.
- Mobile vaccination units are deployed to Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and South Dakota. One unit is supporting the Indian Health Services mission to vaccinate tribal communities across the Great Plains.
- Individuals interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine can visit vaccines.gov to find a location close to them and make an appointment. Individuals can also text their zip code to 438829 to receive a text with the closest COVID-19 vaccine location.
- FEMA is processing applications for funeral assistance to provide financial assistance for COVID-19 related expenses.
- As of May 7, FEMA received more than 170,000 funeral assistance applications and awarded more than $11.2 million.
Please note: further information and data on Vaccine Distribution is available in the attachment.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, please contact Office of External Affairs:
- Congressional Affairs at (202) 646-4500 or at FEMA-Congressional-Affairs@fema.dhs.gov
- Intergovernmental Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-IGA@fema.dhs.gov
- Tribal Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-Tribal@fema.dhs.gov
- Private Sector Engagement at (202) 646-3444 or at nbeoc@max.gov
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Follow FEMA on social media at: FEMA Blog on fema.gov, @FEMA or @FEMAEspanol on Twitter, FEMA or FEMA Espanolon Facebook, @FEMA on Instagram, and via FEMA YouTube channel.
Also, follow Administrator Deanne Criswell on Twitter @FEMA_Deanne.
FEMA Mission
Helping people before, during, and after disasters.