White House funnels $1.7 billion to help track and fight coronavirus variants
CNN
The White House on Friday announced plans to release $1.7 billion in funding to help the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states more effectively track and combat coronavirus variants, some of which have proven to be more transmissible than the original strain.
The effort comes after months of public health experts sounding the alarm about the US's insufficient efforts to identify and track the prevalence of coronavirus variants, which are now sweeping the country and causing surges in cases in many states. While those efforts have improved, experts say the US still does not have enough information about the spread of those variants. States, territories and major US cities will receive a first tranche of $240 million next month as part of a $1 billion investment to improve genomic sequencing, which allows labs to identify coronavirus variants and track the prevalence of those variants. The funding was approved by Congress as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that President Joe Biden signed into law last month.
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