Biden administration’s $150 million boost to Covid response targets underserved and vulnerable areas

In a statement on Monday, the Biden administration announced that it will allocate $150 million from the American Rescue Plan to community-based health care providers across the nation to help boost their coronavirus response for underserved communities and vulnerable populations.

“To get resources to health care providers serving at-risk populations and to promote equitable distribution of vaccines, today (the Department of Health and Human Services) is making $150 million available to community-based health care providers to strengthen their efforts to get shots in arms and care for patients with Covid-19,” Senior White House Covid-19 response adviser Andy Slavitt said at a White House Covid-19 briefing.

The administration was previously expected to announce that the federal government would provide tens of millions of dollars to walk-in style clinics that aren’t in the federal government’s health centre program. These are facilities often welcome people without appointments or insurance and typically serve low-income communities and are often referred by the government as health centre “look-alikes”.

To ramp up vaccination efforts, the government has designated the amount to such clinics to provide education about Covid-19, improve infrastructure to things like computer systems and shore up their overall response in mitigating the spread of coronavirus, an administration official said, an administration official has said.

The White House has continually stressed its efforts to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in an equitable manner across the country. Their efforts will ensure vulnerable populations that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic have access to vaccines as well as medical care.