ATLANTA — The Morehouse School of Medicine has been chosen to administer a $40 million government initiative to combat COVID-19 in minority communities, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday.
Data has shown Black and Brown communities have been hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) said Morehouse School of Medicine would spearhead the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC) program to "work with community-based organizations across the nation to deliver education and information on resources to help fight the pandemic."
"The Morehouse School of Medicine will enter into a cooperative agreement with OMH to lead the initiative to coordinate a strategic network of national, state, territorial, tribal and local organizations to deliver COVID-19-related information to communities hardest hit by the pandemic," a release said.
The program is designed to span three years. According to HHS, the program is slated to begin its work in July, with an initial funding of $14.6 million.
“We know the power of partnerships to help us solve our most pressing public health challenges,” said U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. “This initiative has at its core the community-based organizations who know their people best and who are committed to working collaboratively to reduce health-inequities and make them healthy and safe.”
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