The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published resources for businesses and specific industries.

General Business Frequently Asked Questions
CDC has provided answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) that build on the Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers and Guidance for Critical Infrastructure Workers. Answers address suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, healthy business operations, cleaning and disinfection, and critical infrastructure. These FAQs are not intended for healthcare facilities; CDC has provided separate Guidance for Healthcare Settings.

Industry Specific Resources
CDC has published several fact sheets for workers who may be at risk for exposure to COVID-19. New fact sheets are now available for these specific groups:

• Firefighters and EMS providers
• Food and grocery pick-up and delivery drivers
• Grocery and food retail workers
• Mail and parcel delivery drivers
• Rideshare or ride-for-hire drivers

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

On April 17, USDA Secretary Perdue announced the purchase of up to $3 billion in agricultural commodities for interested farmers, food processors, food banks, and other interested partners.

The Agricultural Marketing Service’s Commodity Procurement Program will procure an estimated $100 million per month in fresh fruits and vegetables, $100 million per month in a variety of dairy products, and $100 million per month in meat products. The distributors and wholesalers will then provide a pre-approved box of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need.

Pennsylvania and its residents need you to participate now, more than ever. By participating in this program, you will get your products to market, help those in needs, and protect Pennsylvania’s agricultural economy. It is vital that you partner with organizations near you that can be found in the State Food Purchase County Lead Agency Directory or The Emergency Food Assistance Program County Lead Agency Directory.

Penn State Extension is also giving information on how to apply.

USDA is moving quickly on this program, applications are due by May 1^st, 2020.

Below are the links to the RFP application and other important documents:

• RFP – ERAcquisition
• RFP Attachment 1 Emergency Aquisition MSCP
• RFP Attachment 2 Compilation of TEFAP sites for AMS
• USDA Webinar and Video

President Trump has signed the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act into law. The bill provides $310 billion in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and makes agricultural enterprises eligible for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.

However, we expect this funding to run out quickly, as it is first come-first served. While we have not yet seen a formal announcement, we expect these applications to open as early as beginning of next week and that the funds will be exhausted in a matter of days. Below, we have provided the links to apply to these grants and we encourage farmers and other small businesses to establish a relationship with an eligible banking or crediting institution to begin the process.

Please note that unlike PPP, applications for the EIDL program are made directly to SBA.

• Paycheck Protection Program
• Economic Injury Disaster Program
  • Any small business with fewer than 500 employees is eligible to apply—this program is inclusive of sole proprietorships, self-employed individuals, and private contractors.
  • The EIDL advance program will issue grants of up to $10,000 that do not need to repaid.

As a direct result of agriculture and the entire food supply chain being life sustaining, combined with hot spots of COVID-19 in processing facilities, any symptomatic adult working in agriculture – including but not limited to those working in processing and manufacturing facilities, food warehouses, groceries stores, and on-farm labor (seasonal farm labor and H2A workers included) – is approved to receive priority testing if they live and/or work in Montgomery County or northeast Pennsylvania.

Members of Pennsylvania’s agriculture workforce who find themselves symptomatic for COVID-19 are encouraged to follow the steps found in the attachment to this email for priority testing if they live and/or work in Montgomery, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Luzerne, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, or Lackawanna counties. There is no cost for testing at these sites, since the test is completed at the PA state public health laboratory.

Those working in agriculture outside of these prioritized regions who are showing symptoms for COVID-19 are encouraged to visit any other approved testing site in Pennsylvania. A full map of locations can be found on the Department of Health’s website.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, shortness of breath, and diarrhea. Symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure.

Pennsylvania Governor Wolf’s administration announced the launch of an online portal for individuals, corporations or community organizations to inform the commonwealth of critical medical supplies available for donation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rural areas are more vulnerable to coronavirus than many people think, says National Rural Health Association member Carrie Henning-Smith of the University of Minnesota. Many in the outsize rural elderly population depend on children and other family caregivers who must also work jobs outside the home. Even before COVID-19 hit, Henning-Smith’s research found that “rural caregivers were dramatically less likely to be able to work at home” than their urban counterparts, “and they had less access to sick leave and time off.” All this makes it harder for them to safely distance themselves and protect their families. A county-by-county analysis of the United States by Princeton University suggests that rural counties with high populations of people over 60 and limited access to health care facilities could eventually be among the hardest hit by the coronavirus, and additional research shows that some remote counties in North Carolina are among the last without COVID-19 cases.

While major cities have been hit hard by the coronavirus, health care workers in rural areas are also facing long shifts and limited supplies on the front line of COVID-19. In particular, rural facilities are struggling with a lack of personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks, N95 respirators, gowns, and face shields, with many stakeholders concerned that rural medical providers seem to have been left out of the supply chain. To help maximize the health care workforce, CMS recently unveiled new health care workforce flexibilities that will allow hospitals to quickly and virtually expand their staff and use them the most efficient way possible. Additionally, a recording of a Rural Health Information Hub presentation on critical care and pulmonary management updates from the COVID-19 frontlines is available on demand.

Today’s unemployment numbers show that roughly 26.5 million Americans have lost their jobs since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, completely wiping out the 22.7 million new jobs created since the Great Recession and adding another somber milestone to the economic toll this novel virus has taken on the U.S. Not all areas of the country have suffered equally, however, as you can see from WalletHub’s updated rankings for the States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus, released today, along with accompanying videos.

To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt 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 (April 13) 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.

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/

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin announced that the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA), Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Authority (PMBDA), and Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) are deferring loans and that the maturity dates and amortization schedules of all applicable loans are extended by three additional calendar months.

PIDA borrowers with payments due in April, May, and June of 2020 are deferred. All other terms and conditions of all applicable loans remain unchanged.

PMBDA borrowers with payments due in April, May, and June of 2020, including principal, interest, and any associated feeds are deferred. Accrual of interest that would be included with deferred payments is suspended. All other terms and conditions of all applicable loans remain unchanged.

CFA borrowers except for PENNWORKS loans, with payments due in April, May, and June of 2020, including principal, interest, and any associated fees are deferred. Accrual of interest that would be included with deferred payments is suspended. All other terms of all applicable loans remain unchanged.

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced emergency benefit increases have reached $2.0 billion per month for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households across all 50 states and 3 territories to increase food security during the coronavirus national emergency. These emergency benefits represent a 40% increase in overall monthly SNAP benefits, significantly increasing food purchasing power for American families