Tester Secures More Than $3.5 Million to Bolster Montana COVID-19 Response

Funding will help increase vaccinations among eligible children, support frontline health care workers in Missoula and Billings

As the Delta variant continues causing cases to spike and hospitals’ ICUs to be at capacity across Montana, U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced he has secured millions of dollars to help vaccinate young Montanans and to support health care workers in Billings, Missoula, and the surrounding regions.

Tester secured $2.5 million in funding for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to help vaccinate eligible children through last December’s government funding and COVID stimulus bill, and more than $1 million in CARES Act funding to support health care workings in the Billings and Missoula areas.

“It’s clear this virus isn’t done with us yet, so we need to do everything we can to protect ourselves and our communities from this deadly pandemic, which is why this critical funding is so important,” Tester said. “I am proud to have secured these funds to help vaccinate Montana children against COVID-19 and to support our brave frontline health care workers, and I encourage every eligible Montanan to get vaccinated as quickly as possible so we can put this pandemic behind us and get our economy back on the right track.”

The CARES Act funding includes $600,000 for Partnership Health Center in Missoula and $595,429 for RiverStone Health in Billings to help with COVID-19 response and resiliency.

All Montanans 12 years and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine free of charge. Vaccine appointments at participating clinics, pharmacies, and other locations can be found at vaccines.gov.

Tester worked tirelessly to ensure that COVID-related funding provides targeted resources to create jobs and build back Montana’s economy. COVID-related funding ensures local mayors have the resources to keep cops and firefighters on the beat, every Montanan who wants a vaccine can get one, schools can fully re-open safely, and provides badly-needed relief for hard-hit Montana workers and small businesses.