Newtown Human Services Director Natalie Jackson says a group of trusty volunteers are "lined up and ready" to assist any local resident who may appreciate a shopping service her agency is helping coordinate to help ensure residents remain better distanced from possible coronavirus exposure.

"Especially if you're over 60, or have any type of compromising health concerns, right now we have more volunteers willing to shop than we have customers," Jackson told The Newtown Bee, Wednesday, April 29.

She also said the recently launched Newtown Helping Hands effort has a new dedicated phone number and e-mail address where people can call or send questions or requests for service.

The new phone number is 203-270-4297 and the new e-mail is newtownhelpinghands@gmail.com.

Jackson said both are monitored seven days a week, and responses are typically made within a day of receiving messages or requests. She said Katherine Simpson is doing great work coordinating the shopping volunteers, while a partner program, Newtown Helping Hands, is being coordinated by Matthew J. Rahtelli.

That program is working to get food into the hands of the elderly, at risk, and struggling families while concurrently supporting the local restaurant community.

Through that effort, meals or gift cards will be purchased from local restaurants for struggling Newtown residents.

Jackson said while individuals looking to stay home while a local shopper volunteer does the grocery run on their behalf can transact that process if they are more comfortable using cash, or the "customer" can contact the store and pre-purchase gift cards to be delivered by mail.

Alternately, one of the shopping volunteers can be authorized to pick up the gift cards and complete the grocery run.

The Newtown Knights of Columbus are coordinating efforts together as one team with the Department of Human Services, American Legion-Post #202, Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, Newtown Chamber of Commerce, Friends of Newtown Seniors, Newtown Interfaith Council, Newtown Knights of Columbus, Newtown Lions Club, Newtown Rotary Club, Real Food Share, Newtown Senior Center, and Whitsons Culinary Group.

The following restaurants are part of the Helping Hands initiative: Bagel Delight, Blue Colony Diner, Butcher's Best Country Market, Carl Anthony's of Monroe, Carminuccio's Pizzas & Subs, Farmhouse, Figs Wood Fired Bistro, Foundry Kitchen and Tavern, Franco's Pizza & Pasta, General Store, Market Place Kitchen & Bar, Misty Vale Deli, My Place Restaurant, Nouveau Monde, Project Pizza, Roberto's of Monroe, and Tambascio's Italian Grill.

To donate to support this initiative CLICK HERE

To learn more join the group on Facebook CLICK HERE

Funds flow through the Knights of Columbus 501c3 "At Out Gate." Organizers state that the fully transparent fundraiser is documenting where all inbound/outbound monies are being utilized, and information will be made available upon request.

Local COVID Stats

Concurrent with Governor Ned Lamont's daily press briefing on Wednesday, Newtown Health District Director Donna Culbert said the state Department of Public Health is recording 103 active COVID-19 cases in Newtown, and there have to date been seven virus-related deaths.

Statewide Wednesday, April 29, a total of 26,767 cases of COVID-19 have been reported 1,691 patients are currently hospitalized, and there have been 2,168 COVID-19-associated deaths.

To date, there have been 94,818 COVID-19 tests completed, 2,073 since Tuesday. Fairfield County continues to outpace any other area of the state with 10,985 positive cases and 774 deaths.

Culbert said she was on a call Wednesday with state officials about the statewide ContaCT contact tracing initiative.

As it rolls out in Newtown and the neighboring district communities of Bridgewater and Roxbury, Culbert said she is hoping to use school nurses and health district staffers as the initial frontline personnel to handle contact tracing locally. She has already been contacted by a few residents ready to help, as well, but cannot put them to work for the time being.

"So far, we have had residents present themselves to help the effort, but we have no formal information yet about recruiting here in Newtown," Culbert said. "If we're able to use other local volunteers, we will put out the call — but we have nowhere to place them right now."

Fed Contact Tracing Push

Five days before Governor Lamont and state Department of Public Health (DPH) officials rolled out that statewide ContaCT contact tracing initiative, Connecticut's US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy joined nine of their colleagues in pushing the Trump administration to immediately craft, release, and implement a plan that includes robust testing for the coronavirus and expanded contact tracing.

Contract tracing is a decades-old process used to limit the transmission of infectious diseases by identifying and contacting individuals who recently interacted with infected people, and monitoring those individuals to evaluate the spread of disease.

Health experts have repeatedly identified COVID-19 contact tracing — along with the testing capacity to make it possible at large scale — as essential to creating safe plans to reopen society. Otherwise, any plan to ease off of social distancing restrictions risks creating second and third waves of the virus that could be just as deadly as the current crisis, or worse.

“In order to begin to ease ... stay-at-home measures for people without symptoms or recent exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case, we must radically expand testing and our public health system must be prepared to dramatically scale up contact tracing efforts," the lawmakers said. "In the current landscape of the pandemic, recommending the relaxation of social distancing policies without, at a minimum, a comprehensive testing and tracing plan — based in science — would risk further spreading the virus, jeopardizing the lives of millions of Americans."

The lawmakers said currently, the nation lacks an extensive testing and tracing infrastructure. According to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, there were only 2,200 contact tracers across the United States as of April 10.

“Before our nation can responsibly reopen, the federal government must swiftly support state and local health authorities to recruit, hire, and train a tracing workforce,” the senators said.

To help ensure that adequate levels of contact tracing be undertaken, the senators requested the following information be provided by April 30:

*A detailed summary of resources needed to design and execute nationwide testing and contact tracing;

*A comprehensive explanation of the federal Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) strategy and efforts to support states and localities in recruiting, hiring, and training a sufficient number of qualified contact tracers across the country, including efforts to recruit tracers with diverse language capabilities, as well as strategies to accommodate seniors and Americans with disabilities.

*A thorough outline of HHS’s plan to protect and secure the private data of Americans during all contact tracing efforts.

Additionally, the senators emphasized that the government must take steps to safeguard Americans’ privacy and ensure that location data is not used inappropriately by technology companies assisting in the use of Bluetooth technology to trace individuals’ potential exposure to the virus.

Resources And Support

During the governor's press briefing, Lamont announced Lt Governor Susan Bysiewicz is heading up a statewide longterm recovery initiative that will coordinate a local representative from each town, who will in turn work with local representatives to ensure the proper diversity of businesses, philanthropic, and community agencies are represented.

The governor explained the local longterm recovery committees are needed to ensure the needs of Connecticut’s residents of every background are met, not just during the height of this crisis, but for the long term.

“Responding to a disaster is a shared responsibility that calls for the involvement of everyone — state government, local government, and a wide range of community partners,” Lamont said. “By working together, we can continue to improve the way we support our residents and our communities as they meet urgent needs and bounce back from the COVID-19 crisis.”

Local longterm recovery committees should be comprised of nonprofit, government, and private-sector partners that have an in-depth knowledge of the communities they serve. Community stakeholders are urged to work through their regional planning emergency teams on the development of these committees.

The Office of the Governor, the Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS), and the Connecticut Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (CT VOAD) are in the process of reaching out to stakeholders in support of the development of these local coordination structures.

Some communities have already coordinated much of these efforts, and others are urged to strengthen their work so that the state and its communities can have one coordinated approach. Information on building these local longterm recovery committees can be found at ctrecovers.ct.gov.

Anyone who has been laid off or had their hours reduced because of the pandemic may be eligible for financial assistance now, according to an outreach message from the Eversource gas and electric utility. Many programs have added funding, extended application deadlines, and relaxed eligibility requirements.

The Connecticut Energy Assistance Program can help pay a portion of household energy bills for those who heat with electric or natural gas. The deadline to apply has been extended to Monday, June 1.

Residential customers who do not qualify or have already used funds from the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program can apply for financial assistance from Operation Fuel by visiting operationfuel.org or contacting the Town of Newtown Department of Human Services at 203-270-4330.

Small business customers may be eligible for state or federal aid through the Coronavirus Aid and Relief (CARES) Act, which just received additional funding.

If a Newtown resident needs help paying their energy bill, the most important thing to do is reach out to Eversource at 800-286-2000 for electric and 800-989-0900 for gas to discuss the situation as soon as possible. The provider is offering new, flexible options that may help meet residents' needs.

Anyone in crisis or facing issues making ends meet or experiencing stress or anxiety can also call 211 infoline or consult its companion website 211ct.org

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 Newtown’s own 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.