By Kelan Lyons
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved Connecticut’s request for a major disaster declaration, unlocking crucial federal funding as officials respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont announced today.
State agencies and municipalities in Connecticut’s eight counties will be reimbursed for 75% of the costs associated with their pandemic response and emergency protective measures, thanks to the approval for public assistance.
“I am grateful that the federal government is recognizing the severity of this pandemic in Connecticut and the impact it is having on the health and safety of the people of our state. It is an important step in providing critical aid in our communities,” Lamont said in a statement.
“This funding is imperative to protecting the health and safety of the people of our state and further limiting the spread of this disease.”
The White House is still reviewing Lamont’s request for additional disaster assistance, which could include expanded unemployment and food benefits, and child care aid.
“I remain hopeful that our request for assistance for individuals will also be approved because this pandemic has had a significant impact on the livelihoods of so many people in Connecticut,” Lamont said. “Thousands of workers and families are badly hurting.”
The announcement comes the day after Connecticut’s confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 1,500. Hospitalizations rose Saturday to 205, and 33 had died.
Lamont and other state officials are increasingly frustrated by the slow rate at which they are receiving critical medical supplies from the federal government, including masks, gowns, and gloves for front-line health care workers.
The state is still waiting for the 1,500 ventilators it has requested from the federal stockpile to augment the 932 ventilators currently available across the state’s hospital system.
Ventilators are a critical piece of equipment needed to keep severely infected patients alive, but there is a national shortage of these machines.
Health officials predict the number of coronavirus infections in Connecticut will double every 3-5 days and that the peak of the pandemic is likely to occur April 11-14.
As the state braces for the April surge, the disease continues to spread in nursing homes, where both staff and residents are falling sick, and among prison employees.
The town of Suffield announced Saturday that “a number of staff and residents” at Suffield House, the town’s sole nursing home, have tested positive for COVID-19. There are also confirmed cases of at the assisted living facility, Suffield by the River, town officials said.
The Suffield cases come on top of outbreaks at least three other facilities in Connecticut, including three deaths and at least eight other confirmed cases at Evergreen Health Center, a nursing home in Stafford Springs.
As of today a dozen inmates have been tested for COVID-19, none of whom was found to have the virus. Three DOC employees have tested positive, however, as has a staff member assigned to the New Haven Correctional Center.
In a memo sent Thursday to all Department of Correction staff, Commissioner Rollin Cook said “isolation units” had been set up at seven correctional facilities across the state.
Newly admitted inmates will spend 14 days in the separate housing units before they join their peers in the general population. The spaces are located at the Bridgeport, Corrigan-Radgowski, Hartford, and New Haven correctional centers, and Garner, Manson and York prisons.
“These isolation units should prove to be an extremely effective defense against newly admitted offenders introducing the virus into the facilities,” Cook wrote.
The department’s Correctional Enterprise of Connecticut unit has begun making personal protective equipment, to respond to the national shortage of face masks.
Around 230 inmates at four correctional facilities have produced more than 4,100 face masks. In an email, DOC spokeswoman Karen Martucci said inmates earn up to $1.50 per hour for their efforts, the top of the department’s pay scale.
Martucci said those masks will first go to the correctional facilities. “Once adequately supplied, we are more than ready to help our communities,” Martucci wrote in an email. “We are all in this together and want to collaborate to the best of our abilities.”
