Proclaiming President Trump's belated signing of Congress' $900B COVID-19 relief bill "better late than never," Gov. Lamont says stopgap financial help for individuals and businesses suffering from the pandemic is on its way.
During his first post-Christmas news conference, the governor said the package will deliver more than $4B in what he calls "direct relief."
The governor's office estimates that Connecticut will receive $1.6B in "direct payments" (the much-debated $600 per person checks), $745M for schools, $695M to replenish depleted unemployment coffers, $312M for vaccine testing & tracing, and more.
According to Glendowlyn Thames, Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Economic and Community Development, $284M is on the way for another round of the Paycheck Protection Plan, intended to help small businesses keep workers on the job.
As he did just before Christmas, Gov. Lamont again emphasized the stability of the state's recent COVID-19 statistics, while warning that Americans' heavy travel over the holiday weekend could soon spark an accelerated case load.
The state DPH reported a positive test rate of 6.05% over the last four days, slightly more than the 7-day running average. 113 people died of COVID-19 over the same span, bringing the total 5,904.