State receives $81.7M from feds for new public health lab

RHODE ISLAND has been awarded $81.7 million in federal grant funds to build a new State Health Laboratory facility./ AP FILE PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has been allocated $81.7 million in federal funds for its plans to build a new State Health Laboratory for the R.I. Department of Health, the state’s congressional delegation announced Monday.

The grants come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity grant program.

In November, the R.I. Commerce Corp. issued a request for proposals from developers for the new health lab. Lot 3 of Parcel 25 of the I-195 Redevelopment District has been set aside for the project, but is not the only place the lab could be located.

The current health lab, commissioned in 1978, is located on Orms Street in Providence and is outdated and in need of repair. RIDOH said that it spends $500,000 annually to keep the facility working efficiently.

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The new lab will be a “Level 3 biosafety facility that is equipped to handle dangerous materials, microbes and pathogens,” the delegation said. Plans also call for a newly created section of the R.I. State Health Lab Center for Biological Sciences that will function as a dedicated Genomics Sequencing Core Laboratory.

“COVID-19 revealed a serious gap in our health care infrastructure.  This new federal funding will help Rhode Island bridge that gap and create a new state-of-the-art lab facility for the 21st century.  This is a wise investment in upgrading our public health infrastructure and ensuring that advanced diagnostics tests and other clinical capabilities are readily available here in Rhode Island,” said Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline in a joint statement.

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