BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $1.7 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse Williams College for the cost of testing students, staff and faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $1,684,852 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the private liberal arts women’s college in Northampton for tests administered between April 2021 and March 2022.
Contractors set up two testing sites on campus in rental tents and administered 106,256 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 11,570 antigen tests during that time period.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Williams College with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our institutions of higher education to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to their success, and to our success as a nation.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.5 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.