Covidap

Sununu cleared to spend relief aid; Vermont nurses defend Scott’s stay-home order

By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press
Here are the latest coronavirus updates around New England:

New Hampshire

A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu from spending New Hampshire’s $1.25 billion in coronavirus relief aid without legislative approval.

The Democratic leaders of the New Hampshire House and Senate sued last week to stop the work of the new Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery. But Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Anderson agreed with Sununu that the lawmakers lacked standing to sue. Even if they didn’t, halting the recovery office’s work would be inappropriate, he said in his ruling.

“Even in an ordinary case, the court must be cautious in granting a request from any individual or group of individuals to stop the governor from acting,” he wrote. “To go even further and allow an individual state taxpayer to stop or even the delay the governor from distributing purely federal funds intended for the benefit of the public in the midst of a global pandemic would be contrary to the public interest.”

Sununu, who had relied on a 2002 law granting the governor authority to take immediate action during a statewide crisis, thanked the judge.

“In this unprecedented public health emergency, it is paramount that we get relief out to New Hampshire families fast, and that is what I am determined to do,” he said.

Democrats argued that provision doesn’t override a more specific law that says during an emergency, “the governor may, with the advice and consent of the fiscal committee, authorize such expenditures.” They disagreed with the ruling.

“Knowing that time is of the essence it is discouraging that instead of arguing this case on the merits, Governor Sununu continues to put up technical roadblocks on this issue and continues to allow a cloud of constitutional uncertainty to persist over how more than a billion dollars in federal aid is properly provided to our communities,” they said.

The numbers: As of Wednesday, more than 1,500 people in New Hampshire had tested positive for the virus, and 48 had died.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

Hospitality help: Leaders in New Hampshire’s hospitality and retail industries are using words like “catastrophic,” “devastated” and “nightmare” to describe the pandemic’s financial toll.

About half of the restaurants represented by the New Hampshire Restaurant and Lodging Association have remained open as takeout businesses, but many are likely to give up soon after losing hundreds of millions of dollars, the group’s president, Mike Somers, told lawmakers Wednesday.

Both restaurant and hotel owners cautioned against allowing restaurants to open with limited seating or hotels with limited occupancy.

“Even though it hurts like hell, in my opinion, it’s better to keep the restrictions on long enough so we don’t reopen the doors and have (the virus) resurface again,” said Steve Duprey, who owns five hotels in Concord. “We have assumed we are not opening any closed facility until Sept. 1. There is not going to be a summer tourism season.”

Nancy Kyle, president of the New Hampshire Retail Association, said stores operating via curbside pickup are maintaining a “trickle of sales,” but she fears consumers now accustomed to shopping for most things online won’t go back.

“Safety concerns may drive them to continue shopping from home long after shops have reopened, and it will be horrific for New Hampshire’s local retailers,” she said.

Task force tasks: A task force on reopening the economy will issue “granular” guidance for specific sectors, from barber shops to bowling allies, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said during the group’s first meeting Wednesday.

Sununu told members to work quickly, because whatever they come up with will have to be cleared by public health officials. Other states also are a factor, he said.

“We don’t have a pact where what we do is what other states are going to do and vice versa, but we all agree that timing should be relatively the same for continuity,” he said. “Timing doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re Montana because the state is so big, it’s so rural, they don’t have an incredibly high infection rate and they’re less impacted by their fellow states. But here in New England, we really are part of that regional community.”

In its next few meetings, the task force will hear from industries including food service, retail trade, manufacturing, recreation, health care and education.

Vermont

About a dozen people showed up on the Vermont Statehouse lawn on a snowy Wednesday to protest against Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s stay-at-home order. At the same time, four nurses from Central Vermont Medical Center wearing face masks turned out to speak against the demonstration.

The protesters had planned to parade through the capital city in their vehicles at 11 a.m. The Montpelier police chief had warned about possible traffic delays as a result of the demonstration, but only a handful of protesters came.

“We have essentially crushed our economy and we need to be able to open back up and get back to work as fast as we can,” said protester Sarah Toscano, of Hinesburg, who was wearing a face mask but said the governor seems to be dragging his feet. “We have flattened the curve,” she said.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, speaking during his regular COVID-19 briefing held at about the same time as the protest, said he was also frustrated by the restrictions required to confront the pandemic and he is also eager to reopen the state’s economy.

But Scott said he would listen to the science and make decisions on what he feels is in the best interest of the health of Vermonters and Vermont as a whole. He said he would watch what happens as other states “open too quickly.”

“The pressure can’t be a reason to do the wrong thing,” Scott said. “We will continue to do what we think is right regardless of the political ramifications.”

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

The numbers: The number of new coronavirus cases reported in Vermont increased by five to a total of 823, the health department reported Wednesday. The number of deaths held steady at 40.

Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said Wednesday department officials did a study of the first 29 fatalities. Of those 13 were patients in long-term care facilities. The median age of all the patients was 80 and all but two were over age 65.

All of the first 29 people who died had significant underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk, such as heart, lung or kidney diseases. Similar to national trends, males outnumbered females 60% to 40%, Levine said.

Maine

The director of the Maine Center for Disease Control said it’s likely there are more coronavirus cases that the state doesn’t know about, but he said he’s heartened that only 5% of tests are positive.

The low percentage suggests the state is not as far behind on testing as some other states that have positive rates closer to 20%, Dr. Nirav Shah told reporters Wednesday.

“This is one of those situations where lower is better. But we know we need to expand our testing capacity,” Shah said.

The state is working to expand its testing for people infected with the new coronavirus and is exploring testing for antibodies that demonstrate a past exposure to the virus among healthy people who’ve recovered or never showed signs of illness.

Testing will factor into the Mills administration’s decision on when to begin a phased-in reopening of the state economy. No decision has been made.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

The numbers: Three more people died from the coronavirus, and the number of people who tested positive topped 900 in the state, Shah said Wednesday.

The new figures bring the number of deaths to 39 in Maine, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of active cases has been leveling off, but state officials said it’s too early to say Maine has turned the corner. Maine’s numbers are small enough that data can be easily skewed by day-to-day changes, officials said.

Respirator masks: Maine received less than a third fewer protective respirator masks per resident from the national stockpile than Vermont or Rhode Island, but more than three times that of Texas, a newspaper reported.

The Portland Press Herald analysis shows the N95 masks, which filter out 95% of all airborne particles, weren’t allocated based on population, as the Trump administration had indicated.

As of April 6, Maine had received 86,008 N95s from the stockpile, or one for every 15.6 state inhabitants. Vermont received one for every 4.7 of its citizens, while Rhode Island got one for every five. Hard-hit Massachusetts got fewer — one for every 28 people, and Texas received one for every 48.

“Whatever methodology this administration is using, there’s no transparency or accountability to it,” Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, said.

Partisan politics didn’t appear to have played a factor in which states got larger shipments, the newspaper reported.

Child care: The federal government, along with two philanthropic organizations, are helping health care workers by paying for child care.

The Harold Alfond Foundation and the Bill & Joan Alfond Foundation have teamed up to cover MaineGeneral costs of providing child care for its employees during the pandemic, to the tune of $350,000, officials said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, nearly $11 million in federal funds will also support access to child care for Maine’s essential workers, including health care professionals and first responders, state officials said.

Child care providers affected by the pandemic also will receive immediate assistance, with nearly 2,000 receiving a one-time stipend, based on capacity and current operations.

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