1:27 A $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package facing a U.S. Senate vote includes funding for states and local communities to tackle behavioral health and addiction after record-level drug overdose deaths nationwide in 2020. At a virtual roundtable Monday with Connecticut addiction prevention and treatment providers, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he hopes additional money will help boost on-the-ground efforts. “But it is a trickle compared to the volume that we need, the resources that are necessary,” he said. Connecticut substance use disorder experts early on warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen the ongoing opioid epidemic and related fatal overdoses. Now almost a year into the pandemic, they’re finding that to be true.