Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced $2.1 billion in American Rescue Plan funding will be used to improve infection prevention and control activities across the U.S. public health and health care sectors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will invest in strengthening and equipping state, local and territorial public health departments and other partner organizations with the resources needed to better fight infections, including COVID-19, in health care facilities. These investments should help address the rise of health care-associated infections, which increased as hospitals were inundated by COVID-19 patients—reversing national progress on infection prevention seen prior to the pandemic. (CDC news release, 9/17/21)
