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Connecticut to launch $150 million fund to help businesses
By Susan Haigh and Pat Eaton-Robb
The Associated Press
A new $150 million, multi-year initiative to invest in Connecticut businesses, with a major focus on fledgling small businesses located in communities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, was unveiled on Thursday.
The Department of Economic and Community Development hopes the private sector will match that funding and co-invest in entrepreneurs, small businesses and start-ups, Commissioner David Lehman said.
“We think there’s a real opportunity to make this initiative even larger and have the state drive it, but with a significant amount of co-investment capital from corporations and philanthropists,” Lehman said.
Molecular Diagnostics Lab in Milford, Connecticut Announces SARS CoV-2 Detection Test Including Variants
This routine DNA sequence electropherogram covering the ACE2 receptor binding domain shows 7 vertical black bars from left to right, pointing to 7 key nucleotides identified as A, G, T, G, A, T and A in the S gene of SARS-CoV-2 in a nasopharyngeal swab specimen taken from a patient with acute respiratory infection. The nucleotide A pointed by the 5th bar is a mutated base, indicating an E484K amino acid mutation (G>A nucleotide mutation). All other 6 black bars point to wildtype bases, confirming the lack of K417N, K417T, L452R, S477N, E484Q, S494P and N501Y mutations in this virus isolate. All known newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern are associated with at least one of the 8 amino acid mutations identified in this sequence. Specimens harboring any of these 8 amino acid mutations will be further sequenced for A67V, Δ69/70, T95I, Δ144Y, Y145del, H146del, W152C and V11
Written by Gov. Ned Lamont
Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the Connecticut Department of Public Health is partnering with the Connecticut chapters of nine historically African American, Greek-lettered fraternities and sororities to further combat COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and increase access to the vaccine within the state’s Black and Brown communities.
The partnership stems from the Department of Public Health’s Trusted Messenger Forum program, which works to train and provide trusted community leaders with messaging toolkits and methods to combat myths and misinformation with factual and scientific information about the COVID-19 vaccines. As a result of this partnership, the nine historically African American fraternities and sororities will be holding a series of free town hall events that will include discussions with well-known doctors, clinicians, and public servants who are members of each of the nine sororities and fraternizes and serve as trusted messen
Thursday the Connecticut Department of Public Health released a statement: statement:
“The vaccine hasn t been approved for 12-15 years olds yet, so those details haven t been completely set yet, though we are communicating with our vaccine providers in order to prepare for the likelihood that the vaccine will be approved for this age group soon.
As with the 16-17-year-olds, 12-15-year-olds will presumably be able to receive their vaccination at any provider who is administering the Pfizer vaccine. Details on which providers would be available to this age group will be available on the ct.gov/covidvaccine webpage. Details on special clinics or other arrangements that may be made to vaccinate this group will be announced when available. At the present time, because of the unique storage and handling requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, many pediatrician offices are not able to administer the vaccine to their patients. We are hopeful that future packaging and other changes m