Responding to Your COVID-19 Questions
Last week, I held my second Facebook Live town hall where I answered questions from Granite Staters about COVID-19 and response efforts. Unfortunately, I did not have time to answer everyone’s questions live, so I wanted to make sure to answer a few more of your questions below:
One question came from Kathy: Thank you for your leadership on so many fronts! Covid disproportionately impacts assisted living and nursing home facilities and results in higher death rates for these folks, many of whom are suffering with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The stories are heartbreaking and death rates staggering. What are we doing to protect this vulnerable population?
I couldn’t agree more, the stories coming out of nursing homes have been heartbreaking and incredibly troubling, and it is essential that facilities do everything that they can to protect the health of their residents.
I am pleased to announce that New Hampshire has received nearly $20 million in federal funding to nursing homes that will provide these facilities much-needed support amid this pandemic. While this funding will help nursing homes take a significant step forward in protecting their residents and staff, the administration must take further aggressive action to protect those in long-term care from COVID-19 — and I will not let up in pushing the administration to do everything in its power to assist these vulnerable populations.
I also received questions from a number of people, including Sally, Kitty, and Linda, about steps we are taking to ensure that everyone can safely cast their vote in upcoming elections.
It is critically important that everyone can safely cast their vote in the upcoming election and be able to exercise their most fundamental right in our democracy.
I’m glad that New Hampshire announced that if you are concerned about your health risk, you can register to vote remotely and you can get an absentee ballot. Additionally, recent bipartisan legislation that Congress passed included funding that states can use to assist with any changes necessary to keep elections safe.
And the last question I’ll answer here is from Jay, who asked: There is a lot of talk of restaurants, hair salons as small businesses, but there are so many other small businesses that will have a long long road to coming back in what will be at best a sluggish economy. What is the plan if this lasts until the end of the year? PLEASE be clear with others in DC that people DO want to work. We don’t want to have to have assistance. Thank you.
I know this is a really hard time for business owners. We need businesses across New Hampshire to succeed so that there can be more job opportunities for those who are unemployed and so that our economy as a whole can recover. I’m pushing for additional support for small businesses in the next COVID-19 package, and there is also additional support for businesses made available by the Main Street Relief Fund that the state set up using federal funding.
Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions — I hope that this has been helpful.
For more information on common COVID-19 challenges, please visit my website. If you have additional questions, you can always contact my office online or call my office at 603–622–2204. You can also follow me on Facebook to be made aware of upcoming Facebook Live town hall events, where I’ll continue to try to answer your COVID-19 questions.
