June 16. The NC Dept. of Health and Human Services is allocating $35 million in federal funding to local health departments to support the COVID-19 response.

Mecklenburg County, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in North Caroline, by far will receive the lion’s share, more than $3.56 million. Wake County, the same size as Mecklenburg, but with roughly half the number of cases, will receive $2.16 million.

Per federal guidelines, counties will be able to use these funds to support COVID-19 staffing, infection controls, testing and tracing, IT infrastructure and data sharing and visualization.

“Our local health departments are critical partners with the state as we fight this virus, and this funding will help them continue and expand their important work,” said Gov. Roy Cooper.

Since the start of the pandemic local health departments have been working virtually non-stop to protect their communities and slow the spread of the virus.

North Carolina’s local health departments help people get tested for COVID-19 as well as conduct contact tracing—in addition to their ongoing work to promote health and prevent disease.

Local health departments will receive a base allocation of $90,000 per county with additional funding based on population size and their cumulative positive COVID-19 caseload. Some local health departments represent multiple counties.

Click here to see how much each health department will receive.