The Minnesota Department of Health on Friday won a $3.25 million, five-year federal grant to continue bolstering the University of Minnesota Medical Center as a regional destination for patients with Ebola and other highly infectious diseases.

Funding will help equip the hospital to "receive patients within eight hours of notification and have the capacity, including beds and staff, to treat at least two Ebola patients at one time," according to Friday's announcement from the Health Department.

Grant money will also be used to modify and retrofit the medical center's containment unit to increase patient capacity, develop a functional satellite laboratory and improve staff training.

The Health Department and U partnership was among nine other regional centers announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U's center will serve Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

Last October, the university was chosen as a prime treatment center for Ebola cases that emerge in the state as part of a new strategy to maximize the recovery odds for patients and minimize the risks to health care workers.

Minnesota will receive $2.25 million during the first year of the grant and $250,000 in each of the next four years.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues. In May, Liberia was declared Ebola-free, but Sierra Leone and Guinea have continued to battle new cases.

LIZ SAWYER