Tennessee Dept. of Health awards Southwest Tennessee Community College $500K grant to fund COVID-19 testing sites and prevention services

(Memphis, Tenn.) – The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) awarded Southwest Tennessee Community College a $500,000 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) State Colleges and Universities grant final month to fund the faculty’s COVID-19 testing and group outreach efforts. Southwest will rent workers and redesign areas on campus and outfit them with gear designed to assist the group have interaction in illness prevention.

“These funds are important to our ongoing efforts to assist shield the Mid-South from COVID-19,” Southwest Tennessee Community College President Tracy D. Hall mentioned. “During the pandemic, we helped vaccinate almost 40,000 residents at our Whitehaven and Gill facilities. Our dedication to combating COVID-19 continues with this effort to assist fellow residents keep away from an infection by means of training and testing.”

Southwest will use the funds to rent three full-time well being educators and two part-time assist workers members who will function free testing sites on the Macon Cove and Union Avenue campuses and the Whitehaven Center. All three areas will supply drive-thru and drop-in testing for Southwest college students, college and workers and the higher Memphis group.

Health and Natural Sciences Dean Shelia Bouie says well being seminars will start as quickly as this summer time. “Our purpose is to promote a more healthy Memphis by offering entry to correct details about COVID-19 and different infectious ailments,” Dr. Bouie mentioned. “A wholesome group makes for a more healthy school.”

President Hall says the funds will assist the faculty deal with well being disparities. “All of us have been touched by COVID-19 not directly, and communities of colour have been hit significantly arduous,” President Hall mentioned. We are grateful for these funds and intend to use them to deal with the well being disparities surrounding infectious illness in our group,” Hall added. “The final purpose is to assist our college students and workers and higher group to keep wholesome and sturdy.”

For extra details about Southwest’s public well being efforts, contact Dr. Shelia Bouie at sbouie@southwest.tn.edu.