COVID-19: NJ Continues Moves to Re-Open, increasing Permitted Gathering Numbers

On June 9th, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy lifted New Jersey’s stay-at-home order and will allow for bigger social gatherings.

– Indoor Gatherings – the limit on indoor gatherings was raised to 25% of capacity or 50 people total; people are required to wear face coverings for these indoor gatherings

– Outdoor Gatherings – the limit on outdoor gatherings was raised from 25 to 100; furthermore, the limit on outdoor gatherings will rise to 250 on June 22nd and 500 on July 3rd

The increase to 500 on July 3rd is intended to permit outdoor graduations to resume in July, as long as fewer than 500 people are gathered together outside.

Exceptions will be granted for outdoor religious services and First Amendment activities, such as protests.

All outdoor recreational and entertainment may resume except for amusement parks, water parks and arcades.

Governor Murphy also announced on the 8th that pools will be permitted to reopen per announced schedules.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Elizabeth Mincer, Jimmy Greenberg or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

 

COVID-19: CDC Releases Guidance for Building Owners – Shared Office Space Alignments May Be A Thing of the Past

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently released guidance to building owners that would eliminate much of the shared office space alignments we have seen over recent years in many buildings. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/building-water-system.html

Among other steps, the CDC suggested that:

1. Desks – should be placed 6 feet apart if possible, and if not, employers ought to use plastic shields to separate desks.

2. Common Areas – there should be no seating in the common areas of the building and the tenant suits and amenities such as refrigerators, microwaves, multiple-serve coffee pots and water coolers, should be eliminated to enable better social distancing and less high touch areas. Multi Serve Coffee service should be replaced by single-serve items.

3. Air Flow – Open windows are recommended for fresh air, but if that is not possible, office building management should consider increasing air filtration or having the HVAC systems draw in as much outdoor air as possible, as much as 100%. MERV 13 filters or HEPA filters provide a means to capture up to 99% of air borne viruses.

4. Office Interiors – Cleaning frequently touched surfaces, including keyboards, telephones, handrails and doorknobs (the CDC lists cleaning products that are good for inactivating viruses). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/disinfecting-building-facility.html

5. Workers – the CDC suggests that workers should also undergo temperature checks, wear masks and wash their hands often. The agency stresses the importance of letting all workers affected by the changes know what is going on, including management and other staff, but also relief employees, janitorial staff and maintenance crews.

Additional information can be found in the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) guide entitled “Getting Back to Work-Preparing Buildings for Reentry,” https://boma.informz.net/BOMA/data/images/Getting%20Back%20To%20Work%20Preparing%20Buildings%20for%20Re%20Entry.pdf

Note that many State governments (e.g., New York) have issued their own office reopening guidelines that are similar to the CDC guidance so be sure to check there as well.

As we start to focus on getting back into the office, my sense is the configurations we have seen over the last 5-10 years are about to undergo some serious modifications.  Some will be temporary and others, likely will be here to stay.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post or real estate related questions, please contact Brad A. Molotsky or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: NJ Issues Additional Re-Opening Guidance – Child Care, Horse Racing, Youth Sports, Summer Camps, Non-Essential Retail, Salons and Restaurants – Executive Order 149

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 149 that has eased restrictions on child-care centers, horse racing, organized youth and other non-professional sports, and summer camps for kids.

Child Care:

o Detailed guidance for licensed child-care centers was issued.
o Child-care centers can reopen their doors to the children of non-essential workers on June 15.
o Centers that planned to open needed to alert the state and file an attestation that they would follow the state guidelines for safety and social distancing.
o Inspectors from the department will be visiting centers that reopen.

• Gov. Murphy also announced the administrative order allowing horse racing in New Jersey will resume on Monday, June 1.

o The grandstands at the state tracks will remain closed.
o Betting will take place online only.

Youth day camps (including municipal summer recreation programs) can open July 6.

o Similar safety and social distancing requirements are being formulated by state officials and will be in place in coming weeks.
o Sleep-away and residential camps remain prohibited under the new order.

Organized youth-sport practices can resume June 22.

o The order extends to high school and college sports programs.
o Activities must be conducted outside and for now must be limited to non-contact drills.
o Murphy said no-contact rules and other restrictions will be revisited on an ongoing basis.

• The Governor said that the 10-person limit on people who can gather inside a house of worship in New Jersey will be raised in advance of services conducted on June 12.
o He did not, however, specify what the revised limit would be.
o Murphy said state officials were working with faith leaders to establish guidance to insure congregant safety.

On Monday, June 1st, the Governor followed up EO 149  saying that he will allow restaurants to reopen for outdoor dining and “non-essential” retail to allow indoor customers, starting on June 15.

Personal care operations, such as salons and barbershops, can reopen on June 22, while gyms and health clubs will be able to reopen at some point in the coming weeks on a limited basis.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Elizabeth Mincer, Jimmy Greenberg or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: New PPP Flexibility Act passed in the House of Representatives which focuses on Small Businesses, Hospitality and Restaurants

The new Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act (H.R. 7010) which focuses on small businesses and restaurants in particular has passed the House of Representatives.

The bipartisan Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, was introduced last week by Reps. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota and Chip Roy, R-Texas, and, is designed to extend the 8-week period under which loan recipients could spend the PPP money to 24 weeks while helping correct other provisions that would provide more flexibility to small businesses in the hospitality realm.

Many hospitality businesses have high overhead costs and low worker salaries, and, as such, will likely struggle to rehire their employees as their businesses have not reopened yet or, if they have reopened, have reopened with a smaller staff due to social distancing requirements for their customers. Additional challenges are presented as some former employees are seeing more income from enhanced unemployment benefits which will also make it difficult to rehire them.

A bipartisan group has already introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Its backers include Sens. Cory Gardner, R- Colorado, Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, Steve Daines, R-Montana, Angus King, I-Maine, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan.

The Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act would:

• Extend the “covered period” under which small businesses can spend the loan proceeds from 8 weeks to 24 weeks or until Dec. 31, 2020.

Expand the 25% cap to use PPP funds on non-payroll expenses, such as rent, mortgage interest and utilities, to 40% of the total loan. Currently, small businesses must use at least 75% of the loan for payroll expenses to get maximum forgiveness, but under the bill that would change to 60% to get maximum forgiveness.

• Give small businesses more time to rehire employees or to obtain forgiveness for the loan if social distancing guidelines and health-related actions from the CDC or other agencies prevented the business from operating at the same capacity as it had before March 1.

• Allow small businesses to take a PPP loan and also qualify for a separate, recently enacted tax credit to defer payroll taxes, currently prohibited to prevent “double dipping.”

Remove the limits on loan forgiveness for small businesses that were unable to rehire employees, hire new employees or return to the same level of business activity as before the virus.

Extend the loan terms for any unforgiven portions that need to be repaid from 2 years to 5 years, at 1% interest.

Extend the period for when a business can apply for loan forgiveness, from within 6 months to within 10 months of the last day of the covered period, before it must start making interest and principal payments. Under the new bill, PPP loan interest and payment of principal and fees will be deferred until the loan is forgiven by the lender.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Sandra Stoneman and Nanette Heide or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: NJ continues Reopening Program permitting additional Outdoor Activities and Businesses to Open on Friday 5-22-20 – Executive Order 147

Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 147 (“EO”), allowing certain outdoor activities at recreational businesses, including archery ranges, batting cages, golf driving ranges, horseback riding, shooting ranges, and tennis clubs as well as community gardens to open with required social distancing measures in place. The EO takes effect on Friday, May 22 at 6:00 a.m.

Outdoor Recreational Businesses: To limit physical interactions, the EO requires outdoor recreational businesses that reopen to limit capacity to 10 people at one time and implement reasonable restrictions that include:

• Using electronic or telephone reservation and payment systems;
• Prohibiting impermissible gatherings;
• Installing physical barriers between employees and customers;
• Limiting the use of equipment to one person;
• Implementing social distancing measures in commonly used areas, including demarcation and signage;
• Infection control and hygiene practices;
• Providing sanitization materials to employees;
• Frequent sanitization of high-touch areas; and
• Limiting occupancy of restrooms.

Community Gardens: Governor Murphy’s EO permits community gardens to reopen so long as they comply with the same restrictions implemented at parks under Executive Order No. 133.

All-Terrain Vehicle and Dirt Bike Rental Businesses: The Order allows all-terrain vehicle and dirt bike rental businesses to reopen to the public for “curb-side” pickup. Such businesses must comply with the same restrictions required for non-essential retail businesses.

Golf Courses: The EO relaxes four of the restrictions on golf courses, allowing them to expand tee-times to four players, allow the use of forecaddies, offer club and equipment rentals, and reopen restrooms with disinfecting and hygiene protocols in place.

The EO also recommends, but does not order, that people wear a face covering while in public settings at outdoor recreational businesses and community gardens when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.

The EO further clarifies that amusements parks and arcades, and other places of public amusement located at these businesses remain closed, including places of public amusement that are located at a place otherwise authorized to be open by any executive order issued after March 21, 2020, such as a boardwalk.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Jimmy Greenberg and Elizabeth Mincer or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: On 5-18-20, Massachusetts issues Reopen Massachusetts, permitting Construction, Manufacturing and Places of Worship to reopen

On May 18th, the Governor of Massachusetts released Reopening Massachusetts, which provides for a 4-phased strategy to reopen businesses and activities in Massachusetts. The Administration also released a new “Safer At Home” Advisory, which instructs residents to stay at home unless engaging in these newly opened activities. Starting 5-18-2020, Massachusetts will begin Phase 1 of reopening, and workplaces that are permitted to open are required to follow new safety protocols and guidance.

Safer at Home Advisory:

Effective 5-18-2020, the Department of Public Health also updated the Stay at Home Advisory, replacing it with a new, “Safer at Home” Advisory. The new Safer at Home Advisory instructs residents to stay home unless they are headed to a newly opened facility or activity. It also advises those over the age of 65 and those with underlying health conditions to stay home with the exception of trips required for health care, groceries, or that are otherwise absolutely necessary.

All residents are required to wear a face covering in public when social distancing is not possible, and individuals are advised to wash their hands frequently and be vigilant in monitoring for symptoms. Restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people remain in effect.

Phase 1 Reopening:

Based on public health metrics, manufacturing facilities and construction sites will open effective 5-18-2020 with applicable guidelines.

Places of worship will be able to open with guidelines that require social distancing and encourage services to be held outdoors.

Hospitals and community health centers that attest to specific public health and safety standards can begin to provide high priority preventative care, pediatric care and treatment for high risk patients.

Under a staggered approach, additional Phase 1 sectors of the economy will be permitted to open effective May 25 including:

• Lab space;
• Office space;
• Limited personal services, including: hair salons, pet grooming, car washes;
• Retail: remote fulfillment and curbside pick-up;

Also permitted to open on May 25 with applicable guidelines, are the following:

• Beaches;
• Parks;
• Drive-in movie theaters;
• Select athletic fields and courts;
• Many outdoor adventure activities;
• Most fishing, hunting, and boating;
• Outdoor gardens, zoos, reserves, and public installations.

Additional sectors expected to open on June 1 as part of Phase 1 include office spaces in the city of Boston with applicable guidelines.

Reopening Massachusetts In Phases:

• Each phase will last a minimum of three weeks and could last longer before moving to the next phase;
• If public health data trends are negative, specific industries, regions, and/or the entire Commonwealth may need to return to an earlier phase;
• The Commonwealth will partner with industries to draft sector-specific protocols in advance of future phases (example: restaurant-specific protocols will be drafted in advance of Phase 2);

Success in earlier phases will refine criteria for future phases including travel, sizes of gatherings, as well as additional retail openings, lodging and accommodations, arts, entertainment, fitness centers, museums, restaurants, youth sports, and other activities.

Industry-Specific Guidance:

Businesses are not required to reopen, and may not do so if they are unable to follow safety protocols. The Baker-Polito Administration has developed industry specific guidance. Businesses are expected to implement these protocols in addition to the more general Mandatory Workplace Safety Standards.

As of May 18, materials for the sectors eligible to open in the first phase of reopening are included on the mass.gov/reopening website. Guidance for sectors opening in later phases will be posted online in advance of those phases.

In order to reopen, businesses must develop a written COVID-19 Control Plan outlining how its workplace will prevent the spread of COVID-19. Required materials are located on mass.gov/reopening, and include detailed sector-specific circulars and checklists to facilitate compliance.

Self-Certification for Businesses:

Required materials for businesses to self-certify are located on mass.gov/reopening, and include:

• COVID-19 Control Plan template, which must be retained on premises and provided in the event of an inspection;
• Compliance Attestation poster to be posted in a location visible to employees and visitors indicating a completed COVID-19 Control Plan; and,
• Other posters and signs describing rules for maintaining social distancing, hygiene protocols, as well as cleaning and disinfecting.

Businesses operating to provide Essential Services, as defined in the Governor’s March 23, 2020 Executive Order, updated on March 31, April 28, and May 15, may remain open and have until May 25, 2020 to comply with the general workplace safety standards, as well as their industry’s sector-specific protocols.

Health Care:

Effective May 18, hospitals and community health centers who attest to meeting specific capacity criteria and public health/safety standards will be allowed to resume a limited set of in-person preventative, diagnostic and treatment services.

Effective May 25, other health care providers who attest to meeting these standards may resume limited in-person services.

Services that may be performed are limited, based on the provider’s clinical judgment to high-priority preventative services, including pediatric care, immunizations, and chronic disease care for high-risk patients, and urgent procedures that cannot be delivered remotely and would lead to high risk or significant worsening of the patient’s condition if deferred.

In order for the phased in hospital expansion and non-hospital reopening, the following statewide metrics must be met:

• 30 percent of hospital ICU beds (including staffed surge capacity) must be available;
• 30 percent of total hospital beds (including staffed surge capacity) must be available.
As a precursor, health care providers must meet the following requirements to reopen or expand services, which include:

• Attesting to public health standards and specific guidelines;
• Ensuring adequate personal protective equipment is on hand, reliable supply chain and other supplies and policies in place;
• Infection control readiness (workflow, cleaning, social distancing, etc.);
• Workforce and patient screening and testing protocols; and,
• Hospitals must have ≥ 25 percent ICU and total bed capacity and reopen pediatric ICU and psychiatric beds if they had been repurposed for surge capacity.

Child Care:

Child care and summer recreation camps will reopen in a phased approach. The initial reopening plan will focus on families who have no safe alternative to group care by increasing emergency child care capacity.

Transit:

• MBTA riders are required to wear face coverings and must make efforts to distance. Riders are asked to avoid riding transit if they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19;
• Employers are encouraged to stagger schedules and implement work from home policies to reduce demand, especially during rush hours;
• The MBTA will take protective and preventative measures such as frequently disinfecting and cleaning vehicles and stations and providing protective supplies to workers.

Supplies:

In order to operate, all Massachusetts businesses will need to meet the Mandatory Workplace Safety Standards and relevant Sector-Specific Protocols published by the state. To support businesses, the state has developed a guide to educate business owners on what supplies are needed to return to workplaces, and a portal to connect businesses with manufacturers and distributors. These are now available to business owners via mass.gov/reopening.

While face coverings are deemed to be critical, medical grade face coverings are not necessary for non-health care workers.

Schools and Higher Education:

As previously announced, Massachusetts’ K-12 school buildings will remain closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year, with remote teaching and learning in place.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Elizabeth Mincer, Daniel Pierce or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: NJ Gov signs 4 New Bills into law – continuing to open more businesses throughout the state – Mixed Drinks; Water Craft; Hospital Visitations; Local Government Meetings

Governor Murphy announced that he’s signed 4 new bills into law that allow more New Jersey businesses to reopen.

Fishing – fishing charters and watercraft rentals are permitted to reopen at 6 a.m on Sunday, May 17th.

Under the bill, charter boats and watercraft rentals are permitted to resume operations as long as social distancing is observed, sanitation is maintained, online payments systems are set up and passenger and customer logs are preserved for the purposes of contact tracing.

Alcohol – authorized the sale and delivery of mixed drinks.

Bill A3966 which was signed into law permits hotels, motels, bars and restaurants to sell and deliver alcoholic beverages and mixed cocktails in original containers or in closed and sealed containers. The bill also allows craft distillery licensees to sell for consumption.

Governor Murphy also signed these bills into law:

A-3942/S-2394 (Mukherji, Vainieri Huttle, Pintor Marin/Greenstein, Stack) – Requires hospital to permit individual to accompany woman during childbirth.

A-3969/S-2392 (Danielsen, Mukherji, Verrelli/Sarlo) – Allows extension of certain local government timeframes; allows local governments to accept certain payments; allows local governments to conduct certain meetings remotely; adjusts certain property tax distribution and notice requirements.

S-2344/A-3970 (Pou, Singer, Vitale/Reynolds-Jackson, Quijano, Zwicker) – Requires Medicaid and health insurance coverage for certain refills of prescription drugs during state of emergency.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Jimmy Greenberg. Elizabeth Mincer or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: NJEDA available sources of Funds and Loans for Businesses in NJ

Good morning and I hope you and yours are doing well and staying safe.

I came across a piece from the Southern NJ Chamber of Commerce that outlined the programs below and reminded me of the various non-COVID related programs that still exist and are open for assistance from the NJEDA.

Worth taking a look if you have a need:

* Micro Business Loan Program: Through this program, the NJEDA makes financing of up to $50,000 available to for-profit New Jersey businesses, which can use the financing for working capital or to purchase equipment. To ensure that the financing is accessible to the early-stage and micro businesses that need it most, to qualify, a business must have annual revenues of less than $1,500,000 in the most current fiscal year and cannot have more than 10 full-time employees at time of application.

* Small Business Fund: The Small Business Fund offers loans of up to $500,000 for qualifying creditworthy small, minority- or women-owned businesses in New Jersey with up to $3 million in revenue that have been in operation for at least one full year and may not have the ability to get bank financing. Not-for-profit corporations that have been operating for at least three full years may also be eligible for assistance under the Small Business Fund.

* Direct Loans: Direct loans are available up to $2 million for fixed assets, and $750,000 for working capital. New Jersey businesses in need of financing and committed to job creation/retention may be eligible for direct loans through the NJEDA when conventional financing is not available. NJEDA’s direct loan financing offers competitive interest rates and terms.

* Premier Lender Program: In partnership with two dozen banks throughout New Jersey, The Premier Lender Program offers up to a $2 million loan participation or $1.5 million loan guarantee for fixed assets, and up to a $750,000 loan participation or $1.5 million guarantee for term working capital. Line of credit guarantees of up to $750,000 are also available.

More details about each of these programs can be found on the NJEDA’s website at http://www.njeda.com/small_midsize_business

NJEDA also launched a suite of programs specifically designed to address the COVID era challenges the outbreak has caused. These initiatives include grants, loans, guarantees, and support for entrepreneurs and community development financial institutions. The grant and loan programs are currently oversubscribed, but the NJEDA is actively seeking funding from federal, corporate, and philanthropic sources to expand them.

Small business owners seeking more information about any of these programs should visit New Jersey’s COVID-19 Business Information Hub at https://cv.business.nj.gov.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Jimmy Greenberg or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: NJ extends Public Health Emergency another 30 days to June 5, 2020

NJ Governor Phil Murphy issued Executive Order 138 (“EO 138”), which extends the Public Health Emergency declared on March 9, 2020 under Executive Order 103 for another 30 days until June 5, 2020. Under the Emergency Health Powers Act, a declared public health emergency expires after 30 days unless renewed. According to this newly issued EO 138, all previously entered Executive Orders remain “in full force and effect”.

The conclusions stated in EO 138 indicate that although New Jersey’s social distancing measures have helped to slow the increase of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state, the total number of cases and deaths in New Jersey has continued to rise and would rise at an even more precipitous rate absent these important measures.

Governor Murphy emphasized the continued importance of social distancing as the best available tool given the lack of an available vaccine or another effective therapy.

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Paul Josephson, Jimmy Greenberg or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

COVID-19: PA Outlines Plans to Create a Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps (“CCCC”)

As Pennsylvania plans to safely reopen the economy and recover from COVID-19, Governor Tom Wolf announced the creation of the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps (“CCCC”), a public service initiative that will support efforts this fall to increase testing and contact tracing and provide critical new job opportunities in the public health sector.

Per Governor Wolf, “the CCCC will serve as a public service program that will expand our ability to conduct contact tracing and testing and mobilize Pennsylvanians to contain COVID-19.”

The Wolf Administration’s continued efforts to reopen Pennsylvania will, in its own words, depend on its ability to expand the availability of COVID-19 testing and develop a robust infrastructure to conduct surveillance and contact tracing. This work will allow Pennsylvanians to effectively monitor and respond to new cases and quantify mitigation efforts.

As PA plans to ramp up these efforts in the coming months, the CCCC would help bring these efforts to fruition by:

• Partnering with local public health agencies, community organizations, and the nonprofit community to expand Pennsylvania’s existing testing and contract tracing initiatives;

• Leveraging additional resources to fund testing and contact tracing initiatives;

• Exploring creative ways to recruit experienced Pennsylvanians with health care and public health experience to support this initiative; and

• Coordinating existing resources deployed by the commonwealth, including community health nurses and county health departments who are currently conducting testing and contact tracing throughout the state.

The CCCC is also hoped to provide for a unique opportunity for PA to recruit and train COVID-19-impacted dislocated and unemployed workers into public service for contact tracing roles, which would address Pennsylvania’s health and economic needs.

To foster this new workforce, the CCCC would:

• Engage partners in the workforce development system, existing allied health training programs, and AmeriCorps programs to build and strengthen a public health workforce across the commonwealth;

• Leverage existing workforce development resources to recruit, train, and connect the public health workforce with employment opportunities; and

• Engage public health and health care employers to connect trained workers with long-term career opportunities.

According to Governor Wolf said. “Through this public service initiative, Pennsylvanians will have opportunities in the months ahead to join a collective effort to ensure that we emerge from this pandemic a stronger Commonwealth.”

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help organizations plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For Further Information:

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Eve Klein, Sharon Caffrey, Sandra Stoneman or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Be well and stay safe!

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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