$500K to help city spot and stop COVID

CDC funds to help Norwalk boost pandemic response

NORWALK — The city is set to receive an nearly $500,000 more from the federal government to combat COVID-19.

Approved by the Common Council at Tuesday’s meeting, Norwalk will get $495,935 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Public Health, Norwalk Health Department Director Deanna D’Amore said.

“This is funding coming from the CDC at the national level that’s been given to state health department to then provide to local health departments to continue to support their response to COVID-19,” she said.

The funds are to be used for “the enhanced detection, response, surveillance and prevention of COVID-19,” according to city documents.

“They’ve guaranteed funding through July 2023, and this is to support contact tracing efforts to help the spread of the disease and to help support existing surveillance systems related to the state contact tracing surveillance system,” D’Amore said.

The funds will be dispersed and used from March 1, 2022, through July 15, 2023.

It is the second round of funding from the CDC’s Epidemiology and Lab Capacity funding, which aims to increase the department’s capacity to identify, diagnose, report, prevent and respond to infectious disease cases and outbreaks, D’Amore said.

“This includes COVID and other infectious diseases,” she said. “The Norwalk Health Department has proposed using these funds to strengthen and expand our contact tracing team and vaccination efforts, and further build capacity for data collection, analysis, and communication for the duration of the grant period.”

The CDC sets the parameters on use of the funds, and DPH allocates funds to local health departments and districts around the state.

Norwalk previously received a similar amount, also from the Epidemiology and Lab Capacity program, last fall. In September 2020, the council approved the receipt of $493,298 from DPH for the same purpose, according to

city documents.

When pressed at Tuesday’s Council meeting, neither Mayor Harry Rilling nor D’Amore specified

what exactly the funds would be put toward, but did not rule out the possibility of a vaccine passport.

“I was curious, does that mean we will be testing and you’re anticipating all the way through 2023?” Norwalk resident Christina

Dustin inquired. “What does it mean by surveillance — is that in regards to possibly vaccine passport or something that you do already?”

Dustin also asked what was meant by COVID-19 surveillance and whether vaccine passports

were on the horizon, to which Rilling responded, “not necessarily.”

City officials did not respond to a request for details regarding planned use for the funds nor whether Norwalk was considering hiring a contact tracer, like

New Milford.

New Milford recently posted a job listing for a contact tracer, whose salary would be funded using state grants.