• Attorney General Maura Healey launches resource website for front line workers
  • Bill to pause evictions and foreclosures in Massachusetts advances
  • MassMutual announces launch of HealthBridge life insurance for healthcare workers
  • Amazon restricts deliveries at French warehouses after inspections – is the U.S. next?
  • Boston’s homeless population tests positive for COVID-19 at alarming rate
  • Trump threatens to force Congress to adjourn
  • Today’s COVID-19 Silver Lining: Bostonians are volunteering by the hundreds

 

  1. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey launched org for health care providers, first responders and others on the front lines of COVID-19. Resources include information on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) access, prioritized COVID-19 testing sites, emergency childcare, free or discounted meals and a safe space to self-isolate if needed.

 

  1. On Beacon Hill, the House advanced a compromise bill to temporarily ban almost all eviction and foreclosure proceedings statewide for the next 120 days or 45 days after Governor Baker rescinds his emergency declaration. Under the compromise language, H4647, landlords cannot terminate tenancy or send notices to quit in cases deemed non-essential. However, tenants are not relieved from their rent obligations nor does the bill prevent landlords from recovering rent. The Senate is expected to take it up today and advocates are hopeful it will make its way to the Governor’s desk quickly.

 

  1. Springfield-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) announced the launch of HealthBridge, a free 3-year term life insurance policy for employees of licensed hospitals, urgent care centers, and emergency medical providers. The program covers active employees including, doctors and nurses, cafeteria workers and security personnel, maintenance crews, custodial staff and lab technicians.

 

  1. Amazon’s French subsidiary must restrict deliveries to essential items through April 20th or face a $1.1 million fine per day while an assessment of contagion for COVID-19 is conducted in six of their warehouses. The French court ruling comes in response to a union’s compliant that Amazon continues to overcrowd their warehouses and lacks adequate health standards.

 

  1. The number Boston’s homeless population testing positive for COVID-19 is growing at an alarming rate. Boston Health Care for the Homeless began testing people with symptoms and traced a cluster back to the Pine Street Inn. After securing enough tests, they discovered 146 of the 397 tested were positive but asymptomatic.

 

  1. For the second time this week, President Trump claimed unprecedented authority amid COVID-19 when he threatened to force Congress to adjourn so he could fill vacancies within the administration without Senate approval. Earlier in the week, Trump asserted he had “total” authority over the decision to reopen the country which he almost immediately backpedaled from after it being flatly rejected by legal experts.

 

  1. Neighbors helping neighbors is the theme of COVID-19 social media groups popping up across Greater Boston. Whether it’s food deliveries, making masks for health care workers or offering supportive phone calls to their most vulnerable neighbors, Bostonians are volunteering by the hundreds on social media to do their part in keeping their communities together, safely.