Update Sen. Anwar 4/23/2020

For a town-by-town breakdown and other COVID-19 statistics, please visit: https://portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus

Hartford HealthCare, Quest Diagnostics To Help Expand COVID-19 Testing Capacity In Connecticut
Governor Ned Lamont announced this week that the state has created a new initiative alongside Hartford HealthCare and Quest Diagnostics which will increase the capacity of COVID-19 testing in the state from 500 to 2,500. Hartford HealthCare will also increase capacity at existing test locations in five locations across the state. The next part of the effort will involve new ways to bring testing to underserved communities to address the health disparities different regions of the state experience. By expanding testing capacity, the state will be able to enhance its response to the virus and better protect front line workers, including health care workers, first responders and employees of nursing homes, group homes and corrections officers.

State Seeking Proposals To Further Bolster Testing
In addition to the Hartford HealthCare and Quest Diagnostics initiative, the state has issued a request-for-proposal seeking organizations that can help scale-up state testing capacity as it seeks to reopen the state economy. In addition to current testing, the state hopes to build out capacity to test people without symptoms, in part front line essential workers, and test them regularly. This is intended to better test for pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19, as the disease can be transmitted before symptoms develop. The state is seeking proposals from organizations supporting sample collection efforts, particularly in urban and underserved communities with significant impacts from COVID-19. Proposals will be accepted and awarded on a rolling basis, ensuring testing capacity can be rapidly scaled. The RFP is available to read here.

Foodshare East Hartford Distribution Extended

Foodshare has extended its drive-thru food distribution at Rentschler Field. The former end date of April 24 has been changed to May 8, with two additional weeks of service. Drivers can go to 615 Silver Lane in East Hartford from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Mondays through Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to noon, April 27 through May 1 and May 4 through May 8. One allocation of food per car per day will be given; no pedestrians are allowed. Foodshare continues to operate Mobile Foodshare; if you cannot drive to East Hartford, please text FOODSHARE to 85511, or go to www.foodshare.org/mobile. To find a food pantry and other resources, call 2-1-1 or go to www.211ct.org. Anyone looking to volunteer or donate can visit www.foodshare.org.

SNAP Participants To Receive Emergency Benefits
The Connecticut Department of Social Services announced the second round of emergency food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, were delivered to more than 100,000 households today. These extra benefits, supported as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, are being distributed to households that do not currently receive maximum SNAP benefits for their household size. This means all households are receiving maximum food benefits allowable, providing extra support in these difficult times.

Small Business Grants
With the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic harming businesses, more grants and opportunities are being introduced to help business owners. These include:

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched the Save Small Business Fund, providing $5,000 grants for businesses employing between three and 20 people. Apply here.
• Google has launched a $340 million grant program providing credits for Google Ads, intended to help businesses connect with their customers online – the credits are automatically added to active Google Ads accounts.
• GoFundMe is supplying businesses who raise at least $500 in a fundraising campaign and have been negatively impacted by the pandemic with matching grants. These businesses must be independently owned and not nationally dominant. The grant must be used to care for employees or pay ongoing business expenses.
• The Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue are offering grants of up to $100,000 for fashion industry businesses at least two years old with less than $10 million in annual revenue and fewer than 30 employees. Applications are due May 2.
• Licensed beauty professionals are eligible for $1,000 grants from Beauty Changes Lives if they are out of work. Applications are open.
• Spanx and the Spanx By Sara Blakely Foundation are administering 1000 grants of $5,000 to women-owned small businesses every month. That application will open on May 4.
• Additionally, Duke University has created a collective list of roughly 400 grants available to small businesses in the United States; and GrantWatch is monitoring grants for nonprofits and small businesses.

Connecticut Office of the Arts Grants
The Office of the Arts has announced grants are available for artists in Connecticut impacted by the pandemic. Two grant programs will assist them:

• The Connecticut Artists Relief Grant program will provide $500 grants to more than 100 artists and teaching artists whose creative practices and income are adversely impacted by COVID-19 safety measures. It is partly funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts.
• The Connecticut Artists Respond Grant program helps artists translate and present art virtually; individual or collaborative artists who present activities, classes or other creative experiences will be eligible for $1,000 or $2,000.

Applications are accepted through May 4.

New Executive Order
The Governor’s 30^th executive order since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is intended to help streamline several processes, making it possible for important procedures to continue around the state. These include:

• An expansion of a previous executive order now allows municipalities’ legislative and budget-making authorities to jointly authorize actions by majority votes. This is intended to allow tine-sensitive and essential actions needing approval on municipal levels to proceed.
• A modification to state statutes, ensuring that individual stimulus payments issued under the federal CARES Act will not be counted as income or resources when determining an individuals’ eligibility for state benefits or services.
• Modifications to state statutes in grounds of divorce, allowing courts to accept virtual or remote testimony from parties dissolving a marriage. This does not apply where restraining orders or protective orders are in effect or pending.
• A modification to state statutes ensuring that parents seeking waivers of right to file motions or petitions for educational support can have that waiver accepted assuming a parent understands the consequences, barring cases with restraining or protective orders in effect or pending.

Several additional legal changes were made. The executive order can be read in full here.

Life Insurers Not Allowed To Ask For COVID-19 History
The Connecticut Insurance commissioner has warned life insurance companies to refrain from asking applicants about their history with COVID-19 and its impacts on their health, going as far as to say any life insurance application form filing containing questions about COVID-19 will not be approved. “Families need the security that life insurance brings,” said Commissioner Andrew N. Mais, “and any new barriers to coverage must be avoided.”

Cigna “Brave of Heart” Fund
Cigna announced it has teamed with the New York Life Foundation and its own foundation to form the Brave of Heart Fund, which will provide financial and emotional support for families who lose a loved one who fights COVID-19 on the front lines. Health care workers are making sacrifices every day; this initiative is designed to help protect them and their families if they unfortunately lose their lives in the process of fighting COVID. Both foundations are making initial seed contributions of $25 million, with the NYLF further matching the first $25 million of additional individual donations received. The Fund is hoped to raise more than $100 million totally to protect families and support these brave men and women. The fund will be administered by E4E Relief and will begin accepting applications in May. Families of doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, cafeteria workers, custodians, volunteers and others on the front lines of health care will be eligible to apply for support, with grants valued at up to $75,000 per family. Donations can be made, and applications will be available, at www.braveofheartfund.com.