COVID-19 Updates 4/29

Zoom
April 29, 2020
This Sunday, join me and CT Working Families Exec. Director, Lindsay Farrell, for an interactive conversation at 5:00 P.M. This is an opportunity to share your questions, ideas, or concerns. You can watch the event and ask us questions on my Facebook.
 
GOVERNOR LAMONT PROVIDES UPDATE ON CONNECTICUT’S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE EFFORTS (Latest Data as of 6:00PM on Wednesday, April 29, 2020)
Data updates on testing in Connecticut

A county-by-county breakdown includes:


 
County Laboratory-Confirmed Cases Hospitalizations Deaths
Fairfield County 10,985 591 774
Hartford County 5,388 403 670
Litchfield County 919 21 79
Middlesex County 631 37 76
New Haven County 7,205 591 493
New London County 540 39 35
Tolland County 427 5 36
Windham County 165 4 2
Pending address validation 507 0 3
Total 26,767 1,691 2,168
 

For several additional graphs and tables containing more data, including a list of cases in every municipality, click here.
Connecticut Labor Department launches website to track unemployment data, providing valuable planning tool for state and municipal governments
 
The Connecticut Department of Labor today launched a website containing spreadsheets that breaks down information on people who have filed for unemployment in the state by age, industry, gender, and town. The public release of the information will provide a valuable insight to municipal and state governments for planning and budgeting purposes, and for developing responsible strategies for re-opening the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The website was developed by the agency’s Office of Research in an effort to track unemployment data from January 2015 to April 2020. Due to the large number of unemployment claims being processed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the April 2020 data is preliminary only.
 
For more information, read the press release issued today by the Connecticut Department of Labor.

Connecticut Department of Labor begins issuing supplemental $600 stimulus payments for unemployment benefits

Governor Ned Lamont yesterday announced that the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL) has successfully programmed its computer system and begun issuing the first round of weekly federal stimulus payments to filers receiving state unemployment benefits, with the first batch of payments having been issued this past weekend.

The additional $600 weekly payment, known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, was created as part of the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is retroactive to March 29, 2020 and will be provided through July 25, 2020. For those who already received unemployment benefits for previous weeks – such as April 4, 11, and 18 – the agency will be providing retroactive payments as a lump sum by the end of this week.

Claimants can check their online accounts on the CTDOL website and see the deposits were issued over the weekend. Those who receive payments through direct deposit should have begun seeing the additional amount appearing in their bank accounts by yesterday.

The first $600 payments totaled more than $89 million. When combined with nearly $51 million issued in state benefits, the agency provided $140 million in unemployment benefits last weekend.

CTDOL continues to work nonstop to implement the remaining two recently established federal stimulus programs:
  • Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for self-employed individuals among others, and
  • Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), a 13-week extension that allows eligible claimants to collect the additional weeks after exhausting the 26 weeks of state benefits.

The agency expects to begin accepting applications for PUA on April 30 and plans to have PEUC in operation by mid-May. Both programs will be retroactive.
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:
  • 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.

Rapid testing site in New Haven continues to take appointments seven days a week
 
The rapid COVID-19 testing site in New Haven that is operated by CVS Health in coordination with the State of Connecticut is continuing to take appointments seven days a week. Test results are provided within 30 minutes and at provided at no charge to anyone. Anyone who wants to be tested does not need to be referred in advance by a medical professional, however appointments are required prior to arriving at the test site.
 
To schedule an appointment, click here.