State gets money The state is getting $10.3 million from the federal government to help enhance preparedness for terrorism and other public health emergencies.
to prepare for terrorism
Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge stressed that the money
be spent on practical supplies
and not fancy equipmentAssociated Press
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that $7.4 million will be used to enhance Hawaii's public health agencies, while the rest will go to support hospital preparedness for possible bioterrorism or other mass casualty events.
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The money will be used "for emergency preparedness to enhance our ability to respond to any type of bioterrorism or infectious disease outbreak emergency," said Janice Okubo, communications director of the state Department of Health.
State health officials used a similar $8.4 million grant last year to expand laboratory capacity, to develop computer software-hardware capability for instant notification and to expand disease investigation, she said.
"So the new funds will be used along those lines, as well as to implement any other guidelines that the (national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) instructs us to," Okubo said.
The funding is part of $3.5 billion the federal department is spending this year on bioterrorism preparedness. A portion of the money is to be used for research into potential bioterrorism disease agents and possible treatments and vaccines.
States, territories and major metropolitan areas can obtain up to 20 percent of their 2003 funding immediately to support current activities, including smallpox vaccination for selected health workers and emergency responders, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.
"Together, we've made strong progress in the past year to strengthen our public health systems, but this remains an ongoing endeavor," he said.
Okubo said she was unsure whether the state would ask for the immediate funding.
Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that Hawaii will receieve a $5.7 million federal grant for homeland security and 80 percent of the money will go directly to Hawaii's four county governments.
Lingle, who appeared at a news conference in her office with Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste and Honolulu Managing Director Ben Lee, said counties would be free to determine how best to spend the money.
"It's highly discretionary," she said, noting that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had stressed to the nation's governors in a conference call that the money not be spent on fancy equipment.
"He's suggesting that the local governments use it for the same kind of equipment you would purchase, the same kind of supplies you would for a civil disaster, a hurricane, a flood, anything like that," she said.
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