RALEIGH — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) selected 26 businesses to form its initial pool of qualified vendors to support the state’s response to COVID-19. North Carolina is responding to the pandemic on multiples fronts, including building the state’s testing and contact tracing infrastructure, while surging assets in communities and populations that have been hardest hit by COVID-19.
“Given how contagious and potentially dangerous this virus is for some, it is essential that we can surge resources where they are needed most. We now have vendors at the ready that the state can put on the ground in local hot spots to support our communities,” said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, MD.
The selected vendors are pre-qualified to work with the department. The first areas of work will focus on testing all residents and staff of nursing homes and significantly increasing testing for African American/Black, LatinX/Hispanic, Native American, and refugee populations in ZIP codes that lack access to testing sites. Historically marginalized populations are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 due to long standing health inequities that NCDHHS is addressing proactively as it responds to this pandemic.
The department is prioritizing working with minority-owned business vendors or vendors who retain a diverse workforce. Of the 26 that were qualified, 14 were minority owned. NCDHHS will continue to work with the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses and partners to encourage prioritized vendors to apply. To support vendors in the next round of the application process, NCDHHS is hosting a webinar on June 26, 2020 from 3-4 p.m. Vendors may register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5812452079685894415.
Vendors applied to be qualified for individual or multiple components to support the state’s strategy:
This is a rolling qualification process and vendors will be able to submit a response by the first of every month through December. The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Round 2 is now posted, and the deadline for response is July 1. In addition, the department anticipates issuing future RFQs for other functions beyond testing, lab capacity, and contact tracing.
Qualified vendors for testing and laboratory reserve capacity include:
Qualified vendors for contact tracing include:
For more information on testing and contact tracing, please see the Frequently Asked Questions about Testing and Frequently Asked Questions about Contact Tracing.
For the latest information on COVID-19, visit nc.gov/covid19. For more data and information about North Carolina’s testing strategy, visit the North Carolina COVID-19 Dashboard: covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard.
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