COVID-19 Sunday Update: Shaheen calls for more tracing funds

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., joined 13 Democratic senators on Saturday calling for Congress to increase funding for contact tracing.

The lawmakers asked for an additional $8 billion for contract tracing initiatives, which would help states and municipalities recruit, hire and train new tracers.

The money also could be used for new digital tools, such as apps that can alert people who may have interacted with a COVID-19 patient, Shaheen said in a news release.

Contact tracing involves public health officials working with patients to help them recall everyone that they may have come into close contact with while infectious. Tracers then warn those people of the potential exposure and provide them with educational tools and access to aid.

More money is needed “to enable states to quickly diagnose patients and get them into appropriate care, as well as help us better understand the spread of the disease, and provide a path forward towards eventually reopening the economy,” wrote the senators, who were lead by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

The funding would be in addition to $25 billion allocated for testing in recently passed legislation. Of that money, New Hampshire is slated to receive $17 million.

The Granite State last week announced its National Guard is helping the state’s contract tracing efforts. Vermont also rolled out a new coronavirus testing and contact tracing protocol last week that involves conducting 1,000 tests a day and increasing testing at prisons, nursing homes and of essential health care workers.

New Hampshire announced three new deaths and an additional 121 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.

The state also said that more than 1,500 people were tested for the virus Friday, its highest one-day total.

The Department of Health and Human Services identified those who died as a woman over 60 years old from Hillsborough County, and one man and woman over 60 in Rockingham County.

Most of the new coronavirus cases continue to come from the southern part of the state, with 50 more people from Rockingham County said to have the virus Saturday.

Manchester saw 27 new cases while Nashua saw 9, while the rest of Hillsborough County reported 11 new cases.

There were six new cases in Merrimack County, four in Strafford, two in Grafton and one in Belknap.

Overall, 2,429 people in New Hampshire are known to have contracted the virus, with 1,107 having recovered.

Long-term care facilities in Massachusetts accounted for nearly 60% of all coronavirus-related deaths in the state, one of the highest publicly reported rates in the country.

Citing data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Boston Globe reports Rhode Island appears to have the highest rate in the nation, at about 71%, followed by Massachusetts.

About 41,000 people are living in nursing and rest homes in Massachusetts.

“If you have someone in the nursing home, you are just holding your breath,” said Elizabeth Dugan, associate professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

State data shows that at least 67% of the state’s 476 long-term care facilities have reported infections.

President Donald Trump says there are many complaints coming in about the state of Maine.

In retweeting a message about a dispute between the state and a restaurant owner who lost his state licenses after defying an order to remain closed, Trump wrote, “Don’t make the cure worse than the problem itself. That can happen, you know!”

Meanwhile, a group of Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives are asking Democratic leaders of the Legislature to call the body back into session to end the state of civil emergency declared by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills to cope with the coronavirus outbreak.

The GOP lawmakers say they have been denied information about the progress of the disease in Maine and about how the state’s businesses can reopen.

On Sunday, Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat, said stripping Mills of emergency powers would jeopardize the state’s COVID-19 funding, limit the state’s ability to procure medical supplies, and leave essential workers without the support they need.

“So far, the Legislature has worked together to put Maine people ahead of partisanship,” Jackson said in a letter distributed on Sunday. As we begin to reopen the state, we must do the same.

The city of Boston will enforce a new statewide order requiring people to wear masks or face coverings, Mayor Marty Walsh said Saturday.

In an interview with CNN, Walsh didn't say how he planned to enforce the order, issued by Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday. Violating the order, which takes effect May 6, could carry a fine of up to $300.

“I was hoping people would take the responsibility themselves,” Walsh said. “Clearly there are too many cases and situations where that’s not happening.”

The Vermont Department of Labor is reminding unemployed Vermonters that they must return to work if called back by their employer.

While exceptions do exist, those who refuse to return to suitable work risk losing benefits.

Additionally, individuals who have been laid off or furloughed and are being paid through the federal Paycheck Protection Program are not eligible for unemployment benefits.

“As businesses are allowed to slowly reopen safely across the state, per the governor’s executive order, we have heard from employers that individuals are refusing to work or accept their employment wages because they are ‘making more’ on unemployment,” Interim Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said in a statement.

(Material from the Associated Press contributed to this report.)