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substantively reduces the effectiveness of the capital investment in addressing the harm <br />identified. <br />As an example, a recipient considering building a new diagnostic testing laboratory to <br />enhance COVID-19 testing capacity may consider whether existing laboratories sufficiently meet <br />demand for COVID-19 testing, considering the demand for test results (along with their <br />turnaround time) as well as the impact of current testing availability on the spread of COVID-19. <br />Recipients may also consider other public health impacts of the level of diagnostic testing <br />capacity, for example if insufficient capacity has decreased testing for other health conditions. <br />The recipient may consider alternatives such as expanding existing laboratories or building a <br />laboratory of a different size. In comparing the effectiveness of the capital expenditures, <br />examples of factors that the recipient may consider include when the facilities will become <br />operational and for how long; the daily throughput of COVID-19 tests; and the effect on <br />minimizing delays in test results on the populations that such tests will serve. In comparing costs, <br />the recipient may compare the total expected cost of the new laboratory (including costs of <br />acquisition of real property, construction of the laboratory, and purchase of any necessary <br />equipment needed to operationalize the lab), against the expected costs of expanding existing <br />laboratories (whether by replacing current equipment with higher throughout devices or <br />physically expanding space to accommodate additional capacity) or building a new laboratory of <br />a different size, including by leasing property. As a reminder, recipients should only consider <br />alternatives that are potentially effective and reasonably feasible. <br />Because, in all cases, uses of SLFRF funds to respond to public health and negative <br />economic impacts of the pandemic must be related and reasonably proportional to a harm caused <br />or exacerbated by the pandemic, some capital expenditures may not eligible. For example, <br />199 <br />