Peter Ban, Bean Restaurant Group Delivering Lunch to First Responders, Health Workers
Peter Pan Bus Lines and the Bean Restaurant Group are teaming up deliver lunch to first responders and frontline workers on a Peter Pan bus. The mission is to show support and gratitude to local healthcare heroes while supporting local restaurants. The first delivery will take place Wednesday, April 8, with food provided by Frigo’s.…
Coronavirus response: Gov. Charlie Baker says COVID-19 testing sites to launch in Lowell, West Springfield
Gov. Charlie Baker said a new site in Lowell will conduct up to 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day, and another will be set up in West Springfield. Baker did not elaborate on the test sites, saying details would come this week. The Lowell site, launched in partnership with CVS, will be announced tomorrow. The staff…
Coronavirus: 107 canceled, postponed Western Mass. events cost economy $27M
The business of hosting conventions, meetings, trade shows and competitions in the Pioneer Valley has taken a $27-million-and-growing hit from the coronavirus, according to the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. So far, organizers and hosts have cancelled 107 events that were to have taken place in March or early April and were at one…
Coronavirus: Small businesses find innovative ways to serve customers
People may not be going into coffee shops, but they are still drinking coffee every day, and the owners of Monsoon Roastery in Springfield are ensuring their customers still have access to their favorite blends. “We have switched over to online ordering and delivery. Right now I’m making between 10 to 30 deliveries a day,”…
UMass Amherst Engineers, Nurses Design Fast-track, Low-cost Face Shield to Provide PPE Devices for Health Care
In just under two weeks, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with engineers, nurses and other health care professionals, have developed a design informed by clinical feedback for protective plastic face shields as the nation combats the spread of the coronavirus. It will be made available to manufacturers to mass-produce personal protective equipment (PPE)…
Coronavirus response: Springfield awards 30 restaurant grants in ‘Prime the Pump’ program
The city has awarded 30 grants totaling more than $225,000 to restaurants through the city’s Prime the Pump program in response to the economic crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The grant money allows the restaurants to protect 30 jobs, according to a news release. Each restaurant will meet payroll expenses. Read the source article…
Plastics Company Steps Up with COVID-19-related Products for Healthcare Workers
It’s called an ‘intubation box,’ or an ‘InTuBox,’ to be more specific. As that name suggests, this is a box that helps shield healthcare workers while they are intubating a patient, thus helping reduce the likelihood of spreading infection. Pia Kumar says the product was conceptualized by an anesthesiologist in Taiwan, and in what would…
Monson Savings Bank Donates $25,000 to Baystate Health’s Greatest Needs Fund
Baystate Health has just completed construction of a rapid-response triage area outside of the Baystate Medical Center Emergency Department, allowing the hospital to better protect patients and medical staff from exposure to the virus as patients are being screened and tested. This new triage area is just one of the many large, unplanned expenses this…
Springfield adding meal sites, dinner to free meal distribution; drive-through locations available – masslive.com
Beginning Monday, Springfield Public Schools will be adding dinner to the packet of free meals provided to students every day. There have also been two new sites added to accommodate the need across the city. “It gives us great satisfaction to now make dinner available to our students. We are grateful to Sodexo for their…
Coronavirus: Massachusetts House passes eviction moratorium bill to address economic impact of COVID-19 – masslive.com
The House passed a bill Thursday that would grant a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for residents and business owners who cannot afford to pay because of the coronavirus pandemic. The bill, H.1279, bars landlords from charging late fees or sending reports to credit rating agencies if tenants notify them within 30 days of a…
Coronavirus response: After Patriots’ plane with medical supplies arrives in Boston, Gov. Charlie Baker says ‘Our job now is to protect each other’ – masslive.com
One box after another was unloaded off the New England Patriots’ red-white-and-blue Boeing 767 at Boston Logan International Airport Thursday afternoon. Inside the boxes were the first shipment of N95 masks meant for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus response. Gov. Charlie Baker confirmed Thursday that the state would receive nearly…
Coronavirus and the economy: US Rep. Richard Neal asks when feds will send money to process new unemployment claims
With nearly 10 million Americans — 330,000 Massachusetts residents among them — filing for unemployment in the last two weeks, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal is asking why the U.S. Department of Labor has yet to distribute emergency administrative funding so states can process the claims. Read the source article at masslive.com