The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has issued guidance to licenses regarding Act 21 of 2020, signed into law today by Governor Tom Wolf, which allows certain hotel and restaurant licensees to temporarily sell prepared beverages and mixed drinks to go, effective today.

Hotel and restaurant licensees that have lost at least 25% of average monthly sales due to COVID-19 business restrictions, and that offer meals to go, may now sell prepared beverages and mixed drinks – liquor and one or more mixer combined on the licensed premises in quantities from four to 64 ounces – in sealed containers.

The announcement can be seen here

A Q&A on this guidance can be found here

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced this week that the March 2020 income over feed cost margin was $9.15 per hundredweight (cwt.), triggering the first payment of 2020 for dairy producers who purchased the appropriate level of coverage under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program.

Current projections indicate that a DMC payment is likely to trigger every month for the remainder of 2020, a different expectation from last July when some market models had forecast no program payments for 18 months

To learn more, see the release here 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published the following industry-specific updates.

Meat and Poultry Processing Employers and Employees
CDC has developed two fact sheets with easy-to-read strategies for employers and employees to prevent COVID-19 infection. Use these tips at work and at home to stay safe.

What Construction Workers Need to Know About COVID-19
CDC has published a new fact sheet that offers steps construction workers can take to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These everyday actions include maintaining distance of 6 feet from others, practicing good hand hygiene, and cleaning frequently touched surfaces often.

For more information, please visit the COVID-19 webpage. To stay up to date on new developments, sign up for the COVID-19 newsletter.

With nearly 39 million Americans now jobless as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but many people actually making more money while unemployed, WalletHub today released updated rankings for the States Hit Most by Unemployment Claims, along with accompanying videos.

To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt the most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. We used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (May 11) and overall since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis (March 16). Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A. To see the states most impacted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.

Increase in Pennsylvania Unemployment Claims Due to Coronavirus (1=Worst, 25=Avg.):

• 437.16% Increase in Unemployment Claims (May 2020 vs May 2019)
  • 64,078 the week of May 11, 2020 vs 11,929 the week of May 13, 2019
  • 4th lowest increase in the U.S.
• 134.74% Increase in the Number of Unemployment Claims (May 2020 vs January 2020)
  • 64,078 the week of May 11, 2020 vs 27,298 the week of January 1, 2020
  • 5th lowest increase in the U.S.
• 1,775.53% Increase in Unemployment Claims Since Pandemic Started
  • 1,849,337 between the week of March 16, 2020 and the week of May 11, 2020 vs 104,157 between the week of March 18, 2019 and the week of May 13, 2019
  • 18th lowest increase in the U.S.

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-biggest-increase-in-unemployment-due-to-coronavirus/72730/.

News

• CMS Releases Additional Waivers for Hospitals and Ground Ambulance Organizations
• Hospice Quality Reporting Program: Quarterly Update for January – March
• Nursing Home Quality Initiative: Updated MDS 3.0 Item Sets
• Hospitals: Submit Medicare GME Affiliation Agreements by October 1 During the COVID-19 PHE

Events

• COVID-19: Lessons from the Front Lines Calls — May 22 and 29
• COVID-19: Home Health and Hospice Call — May 26
• COVID-19: Office Hours Call — May 26
• COVID-19: Nursing Home Call — May 27
• COVID-19: Dialysis Organization Call — May 27
• COVID-19: Nurses Call — May 28
• Prior Authorization Process and Requirements for Certain Outpatient Hospital Department Services Special Open Door Forum — May 28

MLN Matters® Articles

• COVID-19 Blanket Swing Bed Waiver for Addressing Barriers to Nursing Home Placement for Hospitalized Individuals
• Manual Update to Pub. 100-04, Chapter 38, to Remove Identification of Items or Services Related to the 2010 Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Section
• National Coverage Determination (NCD) 20.19 Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM)
• National Coverage Determination (NCD 30.3.3): Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain (cLBP)
• New Physician Specialty Code for Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery (MDS) and Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) and a New Supplier Specialty Code for Home Infusion Therapy Services
• Quarterly Update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database (MPFSDB) – July 2020 Update
• Therapy Codes Update

Multimedia

• Procedure Coding: Using the ICD-10-PCS Web-Based Training Course — Revised

Penn State Project aimed at strengthening communities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of social and economic upheaval. But what factors make certain communities especially vulnerable during this and future crises? And how can policymakers and community groups understand and mitigate these vulnerabilities, while helping communities emerge from such adversity stronger than before?

Researchers in the Center for Economic and Community Development in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, in partnership with Penn State Extension‘s Energy, Business, and Community Vitality Unit, have developed an online tool they hope will facilitate engagement and help community leaders formulate answers to these and other questions.

“Vulnerable Pennsylvanians in the Context of a Pandemic” is a project based on the ArcGIS StoryMap platform. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the site enables the user to click on interactive maps to learn about the prevalence of 12 vulnerability risk factors at the county and, in many cases, census-tract level. Accompanying the maps are narrative text and several questions designed to stimulate thought and discussion.

“As we were thinking about meaningful research we could do to help communities and decision-makers in this pandemic, we thought about vulnerable populations in Pennsylvania,” said Cristy Halerz Schmidt, applied research educator in the Center for Economic and Community Development. “We wanted to identify some of the social and economic factors that could make people more vulnerable to risk, and how these factors might affect their ability to recover from unexpected events.”

The result was a series of interactive maps with data related to conditions that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The maps illustrate — and allow users to drill down on — the following vulnerability risk factors: poverty, housing-cost burden, broadband and internet access, race and ethnicity, school enrollment, healthcare coverage, language barriers, disability status, food insecurity, population 65 and over, transportation, and sources of income.

Based on these factors, the researchers developed information and discussion questions to guide thinking about how, why and where the pandemic and resulting disruptions could affect local populations.

“We hope the discussion questions can help community members better understand their neighborhoods or counties as they seek solutions or plan for impacts,” said Schmidt, who pointed out that many of the vulnerability risk factors incorporated in the tool have been the subject of local and national discussion and news coverage as the pandemic’s impact became more clear.

The narratives and questions can serve as a facilitation tool, noted Alyssa Gurklis, program and project coordinator in the Center for Economic and Community Development. “For example, community leaders can use the maps and text to guide discussion and help people sift through the information,” she said.

“As the pandemic progresses, the maps can be useful in assessing the specific needs of a community and provide a basis for evaluating whether policies and programs are working or whether there needs to be a different approach to issues,” Gurklis added. “This resource can assist decision-makers in navigating those questions.”

Although the project grew out of the coronavirus pandemic, it has a longer-range value, according to Theodore Alter, professor of agricultural, environmental and regional economics and co-director of the Center for Economic and Community Development.

“The pandemic obviously is having really serious impacts across our communities,” Alter said. “Folks are suffering, and there’s going to be a shortfall in revenue that’s going to impact public services. But as citizens, as members of civic and nonprofit organizations, as members of the public and private sectors, we can use this as an opportunity to think about not only what we need to do now to help move families through this crisis, but also to think about what we want our communities to be like in the future.”

The discussion that the StoryMap tool can help stimulate, he explained, may lead to approaches to address chronic issues affecting communities, leaving them more prepared to face future challenges.

“Civil dialogue around our differences and vulnerabilities provides the greatest opportunity for co-creativity and co-innovation,” Alter said. “If I were an extension educator, a community leader, a business owner, a municipal official, a pastor, a head of a mental health organization, I would use this vulnerabilities StoryMap to look in-depth at my community, and then bring people together to talk about the questions we posed and others — use it as a catalyst for figuring out how we want to go forward.

“The conversation should be about more than just how we can mitigate the vulnerabilities, but also how we actually can get stronger in the face of this pandemic so that in the future, we’re better prepared for the next crisis that comes along,” he said. “How can we improve and strengthen what we do and how we do it? It’s not about returning to equilibrium, but about getting stronger, getting better, getting different, because the world is going to be different.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced details of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which will provide up to $16 billion in direct payments to deliver relief to America’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Farmers and ranchers will receive direct support, drawn from two possible funding sources. The first source of funding is $9.5 billion in appropriated funding provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stability (CARES) Act to compensate farmers for losses due to price declines that occurred between mid-January 2020, and mid-April 2020 and provides support for specialty crops for product that had been shipped from the farm between the same time period but subsequently spoiled due to loss of marketing channels. The second funding source uses the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act to compensate producers for $6.5 billion in losses due to on-going market disruptions.

To learn how to apply, please visit the following link.

As the COVID-19 pandemic response continues, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have been working around the clock on many fronts to support the U.S. food and agriculture sector so that Americans continue to have access to a safe and robust food supply. As a next step in carrying out Executive Order 13917, the USDA and FDA today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help prevent interruptions at FDA-regulated food facilities, including fruit and vegetable processing.

Resources and Links for USDA Direct Payments

• For the final rule, which includes the list of commodities for which USDA already has data, please CLICK HERE.
• For the notice of funding availability, which outlines the application process for commodities not listed in the rule, please CLICK HERE.
  • Note: This is the document most relevant for nursery operations and inland aquaculture.

For general information about the CFAP direct payments, please CLICK HERE.