CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Senate is considering a COVID-19 catch-all bill that seeks to help nursing home residents, live performance venues, small business owners and employees required to get tested for the virus.
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on a bill that would bring in outside consultants to assess the state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, create grant programs to support the live performance industry and businesses with five workers or fewer and require employers to bear the cost of COVID-19 tests that aren’t covered by insurers when they require employees to get tested.
The bill includes $250,000 for the nursing home assessment and $1 million each for the performance venue and business grant funds, all of which would come from federal funding.
“This focuses not just on the emergency and the pandemic we see before us today,” said Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, D-Lebanon, sponsor of the section related to small businesses and virus testing. “By doing this, we put these smaller businesses in a better position into the future as a microenterprise.”
THE NUMBERS
Nearly 70,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 374 cases announced Wednesday that included partial numbers for two days. Seven additional deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,116.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has decreased over the past two weeks, going from 638 new cases per day on Jan. 26 to 362 new cases per day on Tuesday.
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