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UPDATED: 3:46 p.m
The governor signed HB 1076, which authorizes the early distribution. Rebates are typically issued starting July 1, but the governor and Treasurer Joe Torsella are sending them to approved applicants, effective immediately, to help during the coronavirus crisis.
According to the governor’s office, the maximum standard rebate is $650, but supplemental rebates for some qualifying homeowners can boost them to $975.
The assistance is made possible by lottery sales and slot machine revenue.
The rebate program benefits eligible Pennsylvanians age 65 and older; widows and widowers age 50 and older; and people with disabilities age 18 and older. The income limit is $35,000 a year for homeowners and $15,000 annually for renters, and half of Social Security income is excluded. It is free to apply for a rebate.
As of Tuesday, the state now has a total of 63,666 positive cases and 4,624 fatalities statewide.
Nursing homes
Nearly 50 Pennsylvania nursing homes have reported 20 or more deaths related to COVID-19, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the state Department of Health.
After weeks of delay, state health officials released a list of 557 long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania reporting cases of the novel coronavirus among residents or staff.
Nursing homes and personal care homes have struggled for months to contain the virus, with residents of the facilities accounting for more than two-thirds of the state's overall death toll of 4,624.
The state's worst nursing home outbreak is at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County, near the Ohio border, where 358 residents and 25 workers have contracted the virus. Brighton has reported 76 deaths. The Health Department has installed a temporary manager at Brighton, and the National Guard has been sent there and to other nursing homes with severe outbreaks.
Most of the other homes reporting 20 or more deaths are clustered in the eastern half of the state, where the virus has been more prevalent in the population as a whole.
Health officials had been under mounting pressure to name long-term care facilities with virus cases, with the state's chief fiscal watchdog, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, urging greater transparency. Health Department officials had said they were weighing the public's right to know against patient privacy and the dictates of state law.
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