Newtown residents who may be calling on or seeing local police patrol officers around the community will now likely be seeing them with enhanced face protections — just in time for Governor Ned Lamont’s stepped-up face mask order, which goes into effect at 8 pm Monday, April 20.

Two days earlier, former UConn football player Frank Quagliano from Soldier Solutions LLC in Wallingford donated 80 black canvas face covers to Newtown Police Department. Officers will now be using these new masks while on patrol to keep themselves and the public safe, according to a department Facebook message.

In exchange for Soldier Solutions’ support, Newtown Police Department presented Quagliano with a plaque of appreciation.

Coming from a military family himself, Quagliano was aware of the growing issue of veteran unemployment. So to provide more job opportunities for vets, Soldier Solutions LLC was born and now employs over 35 veterans and “patriotic Americans,” according to its mission statement.

In addition, through various patriotic apparel companies Soldier Solutions represents, Quagliano helps spread awareness about combat wounded veterans and the struggles they face and provides funding for service dogs through the company’s Operation Companion initiative.

Last Friday evening, Lamont handed down Executive Order 7BB, which in part mandates that cloth face coverings or higher levels of protection will required in public wherever close contact is unavoidable. That order goes on to state that “any person in a public place in Connecticut who is unable to or does not maintain a safe social distance of approximately six feet from every other person shall cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth face covering. In addition, individuals shall use a mask or cloth face covering when using the services of any taxi, car, livery, ride-sharing, or similar service or means of mass public transit, or while within any semi-enclosed transit stop or waiting area.

“The commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development will be required to update the previously issued Safe Workplace rules and Safe Store rules,” the order continues. “Nothing in this order shall require the use of a mask or cloth face covering by anyone for whom doing so would be contrary to his or her health or safety because of a medical condition, anyone under the age of 2 years, or by an older child if the parent, guardian, or person responsible for the child is unable to place the mask safely on the child’s face. If a person declines to wear a mask or face covering because of a medical condition as described above, such person shall not be required to produce medical documentation verifying the stated condition.”

Latest Stats & Updates

As of Sunday evening, April 19, the state Department of Health reported that the Newtown Health District was monitoring 68 positive coronavirus cases. By that time, Gov Lamont’s office was reporting a total of 17,962 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Connecticut residents with 1,901 patients currently hospitalized, and 1,127 COVID-19-associated deaths.

Fairfield County continues to outpace the rest of the state, with 7,434 logged infections, 746 hospitalized, and 447 deaths as of Sunday. Lamont noted that Sunday’s stats reflected a second day drop in the number of COVID-related hospitalizations, but continued to temper optimism with caution.

“For the second straight day, the number of people hospitalized in Connecticut due to complications caused by COVID-19 has slightly decreased, another step in the right direction and another sign that the efforts we’ve been taking as a community are having an impact on slowing the outbreak,” Lamont said.

“Whether this continues is dependent upon the actions each of us takes over the next several days and weeks. This isn’t over — we lost another 41 Connecticut residents, and we mourn for their lives,” he added. “Together, we can have an impact on flattening the curve, but if people tell you the pandemic has ended — they are wrong.”

The weekend saw two collaborative efforts occurring among regional governors. On Saturday, Lamont along with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, and Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey announced that marinas, boatyards, and marine manufacturers in their states will be allowed to open for personal use as long as strict social distancing and sanitization protocols are followed.

Chartered watercraft services or rentals will not be allowed, and restaurant activity at these sites must be limited to take-out or delivery only, like anywhere else in the three states. This announcement aligns the policies of the three states on this particular service.

Lamont explained that in Connecticut, this multi-state alignment is an affirmation of the state’s current policy, and marinas and marina repair remain on the essential business list.

“Our states share workforces, resources, public transit, and we all share a connection on the water,” he said. “This is yet another example of how our states have shared interests, which is all the more reason to collaborate on these kinds of decisions. This decision provides uniformity across our marinas.”

Back To Work Planning

On Sunday, Lamont announced Connecticut’s role in a multi-state effort to get residents back to work while restoring the economy.

He, Cuomo, Murphy, Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, and Governor John Carney of Delaware announced their appointees to a multi-state, regional council. The appointees include one health expert, one economic development expert, and the respective chief of staff from each state.

Lamont stressed that in Connecticut, this multi-state council is a separate entity from the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, which is the localized, Connecticut-based panel of health, business, and education experts that will consult with the Lamont administration and the state’s legislative leaders on the reopening of the economy.

Members who will serve on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group are in the process of being appointed and will be announced in the coming days. Connecticut’s appointees to the regional, multi-state council include:

*Dr Albert Ko, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and department chair at the Yale School of Public Health;

*Indra Nooyi: co-chair of the nonprofit organization AdvanceCT and former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo; and

*Paul Mounds Jr, Chief of Staff for the Office of Governor Ned Lamont.

“We have been collaborating closely with our neighboring states to combat this pandemic through a uniform approach to social distancing and density reduction and it has been working well,” Lamont said. “Now it is time to start opening the valve slowly and carefully while watching the infection rate meter so we don’t trigger a second wave of new infections.”

Lamont stressed that this latest move “is not a light switch that we can just flick on and everything goes back to normal.

“We have to come up with a smart, consistent strategy to restart the systems we shut down and get people back to work, and to the extent possible we want to do that through a regional approach because we are a regional economy,” the governor added. “New York is partnering with these five states to create a multi-state council that will come up with a framework based on science and data to gradually ease the stay at home restrictions and get our economy back up and running.”

Also on Sunday, Lamont announced that to provide additional support to the state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, the Connecticut Department of Public Health has announced that its staff will be making physical, on-site visits to all of Connecticut’s 215 nursing homes and long-term care facilities over the next 7-10 days.

The department’s Healthcare Quality and Safety Branch, with guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will conduct infection control surveys during each visit. This will be a first among states in the region, as all nurses in the Facility Licensing and Investigations Section have been fit-tested for N95 respirators, which is a federal requirement.

More Nursing Home Support

On that subject, Lamont also announced Sunday he is directing his administration to boost Medicaid payments for all of the state’s 215 nursing homes by an additional five percent above the recently announced ten percent increase. Together, the 15 percent across-the-board financial relief will provide an additional $65 million in Medicaid payment increases to the state’s nursing homes.

“Connecticut’s nursing home operators and their employees provide an incredible service to the people of our state, including the 22,000 residents who receive direct care in nursing homes on a daily basis,” Lamont said. “I want to extend my profound gratitude to them, particularly during this unprecedented global pandemic that is having a particularly adverse impact on the elderly and individuals with disabilities residing in long-term care settings.”

The state’s increased financial support will be applied toward:

*Employee wages, including staff retention bonuses, overtime, and shift incentive payments;

*New costs related to screening of visitors;

*Personal protective equipment;

*Cleaning and housekeeping supplies; and

*Other costs related to COVID-19.

In addition, in recognition of the continuing needs of nursing homes during this crisis, the Lamont administration also announced implementation of the following additional measures to the state’s Medicaid program:

*The state will provide an across-the-board rate increase of 10 percent for non-COVID beds, retroactive to March 1 (previously, the 10 percent increase was to take affect April 1).

*The state will provide an additional across-the-board rate increase of 5 percent for non-COVID beds for the period of April 1 through June 30, bringing the total increase during this period of 15 percent.

*The state will reimburse at $400 per day for COVID-positive residents in non-COVID recovery facilities. This rate is in effect for a maximum of 30 days per bed.

*The state’s advance of $11.6 million from the initial 10 percent rate increase, which was received by skilled nursing facilities on April 7, is now being extended back to March 1, adding $12 million in immediate revenue.

The state is also assisting with start-up costs and $600 per-day payment to all facilities that are designated by the Department of Public Health as suitable to be reopened for the purpose of serving residents with COVID-19 who are being discharged from hospitals and who need nursing home level of care.

Last Friday, CTMirror reported that one out of every 12 Connecticut nursing homes has a COVID-19 infection rate of at least 25 percent, and in three homes, more than half of the residents were diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Statewide, among Connecticut’s 213 nursing homes, one out of every 12 residents has tested positive for the disease, while one out of every 55 has died. One out of every 30 nursing homes has had at least ten percent of its residents die.

For the most up-to-date information from the State of Connecticut on COVID-19, including an FAQ, other guidance and resources, and a way to ask questions, Newtown residents are encouraged to visit ct.gov/coronavirus.

The Newtown Bee is continuing to provide and mirror information and messages coming from local and state agencies on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. Newtown residents can get more details by visiting:

*Town of Newtown COVID-19 web page: CLICK HERE

Residents can also review all prior COVID-19 updates and follow the newspaper’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages for breaking local and state reports.

Please check in regularly, share, and follow the newspaper’s hyperlocal coverage at newtownbee.com through the remainder of this public health emergency.