Rocky Boy receives award to combat COVID-19 pandemic

Press release

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration awarded today $15 million to 52 tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations and other health services providers to tribes across 20 states, including at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in Montana, to prepare, prevent, and respond to COVID-19 in rural tribal communities. 

The awards included three in Montana, including $292,916 to the Rocky Boy Health Board, an announcement page on the Human Resources and Services Administration site said.

The Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation received $300,000 and the Bighorn Valley Health Center at Hardin, Montana, near the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations received $300,000, the page reports.

“Today’s funding gives tribes critical support to build up their capacity for fighting COVID-19, boost testing capabilities, increase purchases of PPE, and hire and pay the personnel they need,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.

These awards are funded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security — CARES — Act that President Donald Trump signed into law March 27. HRSA made awards to federally recognized tribes and other tribal organizations based on their needs and capacity to implement COVID-19 related activities in their rural communities. Tribes could request up to $300K in funding for these activities through the Rural Tribal COVID-19 Response program.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many tribal communities, particularly in rural areas, very hard,” HRSA Administrator Tom Engels said. “By directing new resources to these areas we are hoping to make a difference that will result in fewer new infections of this pernicious virus.”

The RTCR program funding allows tribes maximum flexibility in how they respond to COVID-19 within their communities. Activities include supporting their workforce by ensuring access to personal protective equipment and offering overtime and hazard pay, building infrastructure to include maximizing telehealth services, increasing their capacity to test and isolate suspected COVID-19 patients, purchasing mobile clinics or vehicles for transporting COVID-19 patients to increase access to health care services and providing culturally-informed educational resources and information to promote behaviors that slow the spread of the virus.

For the complete list of Rural Tribal COVID-19 Response program award recipients, people can visit http://www.hrsa.gov/rural-health/coronavirus/rural-tribal-covid-19-response-fy20-awards .

For more information about COVID-19, people can visit http://www.coronavirus.gov .

For more information on HRSA’s COVID-19 efforts, people can visit http://www.hrsa.gov/coronavirus .

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Havre Daily News staff contributed to this report.