Officials in Cape May County have announced they will be receiving over $552,000 from a grant to aid in expanding COVID-19 testing across the county.

$552,513 is coming from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC)-Enhancing Detection Grant via the New Jersey Department of Health. The money will be used over a six-month period.

The county says the money will be put towards testing those deemed to be at-risk, vulnerable, and also for first responders.

In a press release, Freeholder Jeff Pierson said, "I can’t say enough about the work of our Cape May County Health Department and the continued partnership with our community partners including Cape Regional Medical Center. The Health Department has engaged in bringing additional testing to the County, public awareness campaigns, and has led our County’s Coronavirus Task Force. This expanded testing will allow us to isolate cases and get people quarantined quicker so we can reduce the spread of COVID-19."

The county says,

The increased testing will be initiated in multiple ways. One of the priorities is to establish an additional COVID-19 testing center at Cape May County Department of Health. This will focus on expanding testing for first responders, symptomatic individuals, close contacts of positive cases, health care workers, and asymptomatic referrals. The County will also conduct testing by operating mobile and walk-up testing options for vulnerable populations that have trouble accessing the stationary County testing sites. The focus of these mobile testing sites will be in geographic areas currently underserved, seniors living in high-rises and dense apartment buildings, and at-risk symptomatic individuals of the general population. Testing will be conducted four days a week for 26-weeks. Mobile testing will be conducted two days a week in all 16 municipalities on a rotating basis and another two days per week at the Cape May County Department of Health.

The County Health Department will be releasing a schedule for testing closer to the start of the program.

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