As Governor Ned Lamont ordered mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing at every state nursing home, residential community, and assisted living agency, the Newtown Health District released a graph charting comparisons in positive cases between individuals at Newtown facilities and members of the general population.

According to the data, as of May 31, approximately half of Newtown’s coronavirus cases, 105 out of 211, occurred among residents of three local congregate care facilities.

Health District Director Donna Culbert told The Newtown Bee that while state statistics have been subject to minor fluctuations as duplicate cases were added to and then refined out of daily reports, as of May 28, the state was reporting that:

*Newtown Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, with 154 beds, had reported 88 positive cases with six lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths and four suspected deaths;

*Maplewood at Newtown, with 124 beds, had registered 21 positive cases, five lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths, and three suspected deaths; and

*The Commons of Newtown, with 56 beds, reported six COVID-19 cases and no onsite deaths.

As of that date, there were no COVID-19 cases or deaths reported at Church Hill Village, which had just recently opened when the virus began significantly affecting the state. That prevented a number of new residents who had reserved rooms at the Church Hill Road facility from moving in, keeping its population low and making it easier to employ protective measures including distancing and minimizing outside contacts.

After weeks of controversy over inadequate COVID-19 testing at nursing homes, Governor Ned Lamont on June 1 ordered the mandatory testing of all staff and residents at nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and elderly residential communities.

Experts have said that the lack of broad testing at Connecticut nursing homes and other facilities is a major reason why the infection rates and coronavirus fatalities at those institutions have been so high and so deadly.

Lamont’s new executive order came as state officials reported that nearly 4,000 people in Connecticut have died of coronavirus-related causes. Last month, as the state began wider-scale nursing home testing, resident deaths accounted for nearly 60 percent of all COVID-19 fatalities in Connecticut.

The governor ordered that “all staff of these facilities to be tested for COVID-19 weekly for the duration of the public health and civil preparedness emergency.”

Studies have shown that universal testing of both staff and residents of nursing homes is critical to curbing the spread of this virus. State officials have said that limited supplies of testing materials and an initial decision to focus testing on hospitals delayed efforts to check the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes across the state.

The governor’s action drew praise from the state’s two long-term care associations, LeadingAge Connecticut and the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities.

“Launching universal employee and resident COVID-19 testing is an important move to control the further spread of the virus and to hopefully bring us closer to a place of reopening the nursing homes and assisted living communities to visitors,” officials of the associations said in a statement.

On June 1, federal health officials said nursing homes have reported nearly 26,000 deaths among residents from COVID-19.

Latest Executive Orders

On June 1, Lamont’s 48th Executive Order (No. 7UU) also permitted the Connecticut Department of Labor to consider, when determining a worker’s eligibility for unemployment benefits, whether COVID-19 means returning to work would pose an unreasonable risk to the health of a member of that worker’s household.

A 49th order June 2 modified the number of children from 30 to 50 that a child care program can serve during the civil preparedness and public health emergency without needing to obtain approval from the Office of Early Childhood. Any facility caring for more than 50 children will need to obtain approval.

The Department of Social Services announced that recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be able to purchase food online from participating retailers in Connecticut beginning Tuesday, June 2 and Wednesday, June 3. SNAP enrollees will be able to use their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card to purchase eligible food items online for delivery or curbside pickup.

Retailers approved for the initial launch of online SNAP purchasing are Amazon (including Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh), 12 Walmart stores (find a list by CLICKING HERE), and 22 ShopRite stores (find a list by CLICKING HERE).

All participating stores had launched online SNAP purchasing by June 3. Online contact points for the stores are www.amazon.com/snapebt; www.walmart.com/grocery; and www.shoprite.com/Store-Locator.

Only SNAP benefits on EBT cards can be used for online purchases. At this time, cash assistance benefits on EBT cards cannot be used to shop online, as federal rules do not allow SNAP benefits to be used for shopping, delivery, or service fees, but some food retailers may choose to waive fees (as Amazon does for orders over $35).

Online shoppers using SNAP benefits may use other debit or credit cards to pay for any fees or non-SNAP-eligible items they wish to purchase. For more information about SNAP benefits in Connecticut, visit www.ct.gov/snap.

Emergency Assistance

On June 3, Lamont announced that the State of Connecticut is partnering with philanthropic organizations in an effort to provide emergency assistance to residents in the state who are most directly impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency and are otherwise ineligible from receiving assistance through federal pandemic relief programs, including those from within the undocumented community.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was created at the outbreak of the pandemic, excludes relief to any residents who are undocumented and to any US citizen who files taxes with an undocumented spouse or partner.

This measure also denies emergency benefits to the US citizen children of these parents. The Lamont administration and its philanthropic partners are taking steps to address this situation and provide assistance. Connecticut is the first state in New England to offer targeted relief to these groups of residents.

This includes $2.5 million in state funding that will be made available as rental assistance to those who are ineligible for similar aid by the CARES Act. The Connecticut Department of Housing will administer this program, which is currently in development.

Additionally, the philanthropic organization 4-CT, which was created solely to provide emergency aid to state residents during the current pandemic, will make $1 million available to Connecticut families who are excluded from federal relief programs.

These funds will be made available through the 4-CT Card, which will provide direct, one-time payments to families. The program will engage trusted community-based organizations as partners that will write “prescriptions” for cash assistance. Recipients will take these prescriptions to community health centers partnering with the program for validation, where they will receive gift cards to help pay for expenses like food and clothing.

Housing, Counseling Funds

The Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH) announced June 1 that it has gained approval from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regarding the federal dollars the state agency is receiving from the CARES Act that will be utilized for housing issues. DOH was awarded $8.1 million in CDBG-CV funding and $8.1 million in ESG-CV funding.

This is the first tranche of federal dollars that DOH was awarded under the CARES Act.

Eligible activities under CDBG-CV include but are not limited to making interim improvements on private properties to enable an individual patient to remain quarantined on a temporary basis; providing test diagnosis or services at a fixed or mobile location and providing equipment necessary to carry out the public service; and delivering meals on wheels to quarantined individuals or individuals who must remain social distanced due to medical vulnerabilities.

ESG-CV eligible activities include but are not limited to the expansion of rapid rehousing, expansion of shelter operations, establishing an eviction prevention program, and utilizing monies for telehealth. DOH has oversight of most of the homeless shelters in the state. This federal funding will assist DOH’s ongoing efforts to move homeless individuals from hotels into permanent housing.

David Tille, HUD’s regional administrator for New England, said, “As our largest grantee, they are in the best position to work with our partners on the front lines to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus with these CARES Act funds. We are confident that they will successfully use these funds to meet the urgent and complex challenges faced by our communities.”

Governor Lamont announced that Connecticut has received approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide crisis counseling to those who have been impacted by COVID-19. This program will be administered by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services in cooperation with the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. A federal grant of $669,404 will be utilized by the state to provide the following services:

*Crisis counseling to persons experiencing homelessness who are in shelters, hotels, and in the community, as well as staff in these facilities;

*Crisis counseling to senior citizens in congregate care settings and the community; and

*Enhancement of crisis counseling call-line services provided through United Way 2-1-1.

The funding will also be used to develop a statewide advertising and media campaign, including social media outreach for the purpose of linking victim families to needed resources, as well as to provide psychological first aid support and stress management tips.

Individuals who have questions that are not answered on the website can also call 2-1-1 for assistance. The hotline is available 24 hours a day and has multilingual assistance.

Relay services can be accessed by calling 7-1-1. Anyone who is out of state or using Relay can connect to Connecticut 2-1-1 toll free by dialing 800-203-1234.

The hotline is intended to be used by individuals who are not experiencing symptoms but who may have general questions related to COVID-19. Anyone experiencing symptoms is strongly urged to contact their medical provider.

For state COVID-19 information, visit ct.gov/coronavirus; for local information in Newtown, CLICK HERE.

Connecticut Mirror and Associated Press content were used in this report.