Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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public communication efforts; enhancement to health care capacity, including through alternative care facilities; purchases of personal protective equipment; support for prevention, mitigation, or other services in congregate living facilities (e.g., nursing homes, incarceration settings, homeless shelters, group living facilities) and other key settings like schools; ventilation improvements in congregate settings, health care settings, or other key locations; enhancement of public health data systems; other public health responses; and capital investments in public facilities to meet pandemic operational needs, such as physical plant improvements to public hospitals and health clinics or adaptations to public buildings to implement COVID-19 mitigation tactics. These enumerated uses are consistent with guidance from public health authorities, including the CDC. Public Comment: Many commenters were supportive of expansive enumerated eligible uses for mitigating and preventing COVID-19, noting the wide range of activities that governments may undertake and the continued changing landscape of pandemic response. Some commenters requested that Treasury engage in ongoing consideration of and consultation on evolving public health needs and resulting eligible expenses. Some commenters noted that their jurisdiction does not have an official public health program, for example smaller jurisdictions or those that do not have a health department, and requested clarification on whether their public health expenses would still be eligible in compliance with program rules. Treasury Response: In the final rule, Treasury is maintaining an expansive list of enumerated eligible uses to mitigate and prevent COVID-19, given the wide-ranging activities that governments may take to further these goals, including "other public health responses." Note that the final rule discusses several of these enumerated uses in more detail below. 56