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Sununu: 14 ‘flex facilities’ set up, ready

By ADAM URQUHART - Staff Writer | Apr 4, 2020

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Gov. Chris Sununu emphasizes a point while delivering his annual State of the State address Tuesday to members and guests of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce.

CONCORD – With the addition of 14 clinical surge flex facilities set up across the state, New Hampshire now has a total bed capacity of more than 5,000.

The 14 facilities will remain dark until they are needed, and are in place to help hospitals deal with overflow should the state’s health care system reach capacity in the coming weeks.

The National Guard helped set up the facilities, including one located in Nashua.

In total, the state will have more than 1,600 clinical surge beds ready, Gov. Chris Sununu said at a press conference on Friday.

“The cost of these centers will be borne by a combination of FEMA funds, state resources and other federal dollars, managed care organizations and hospitals, and I want to emphasize that our team has built a model to ensure that no costs will be borne by municipalities or the institutions housing these centers,” Sununu said.

The governor also announced that, effective Friday, the Department of Employment Security is now taking a lead role in building and operating a new health workforce flex system that will allow many of the furloughed workers, health care workers especially, to be redeployed to other frontline facilities across the state.

Later Friday, Sununu announced an emergency order that will empower municipalities to offer homeowners taxpayer abatement of their interest and penalties for property tax. The governor encouraged all municipalities to utilize this authority where they are able to provide that relief to their citizens.

Another area officials are looking at is how the state holds its cash.

“What we’re doing today (Friday), is given the very solid strength of our New Hampshire banks, I’m announcing that we are moving a lot of our cash reserves in New Hampshire to be held in our New Hampshire banks,” Sununu said.

“That gives them the liquidity and the asset base to hopefully increase their small business loans to many of the communities across the state.”

In addition, the New Hampshire Grocers Association is opening an emergency operations center to support grocery stores during the pandemic.

State officials worked closely with the association to develop new practical guidelines to keep people safe. Some of these include encouraging stores to cap occupancy at 50 percent of the store capacity, excluding staff, marking 6 feet of space at checkout lines and high traffic areas to promote social distancing, posting signage throughout stores to remind customers of social distancing requirements, and where practical, designate aisles as one way traffic to minimize spacing.

Officials also are looking to install Plexiglass shields for clerks at checkout, which will protect both employees and customers.

While grocery store employees continue to show up to work each day, many across the state are now working remotely, while others have lost their jobs.

Sununu said – by Monday – between 70,000 and 80,000, if not more, people will have applied for unemployment insurance, which is twice what has ever been reported in the Granite State.

On a more positive note, parks in the state are going to remain open, although officials want people to understand the critical importance of social distancing.

Sununu also announced the “home hike challenge” Friday, where residents are encouraged to explore their own communities, whether that be a town forest or a walk in a neighborhood people have not yet explored.

“There will be an end, right, we are going to get to an end point here,” Sununu said. “Is it six weeks away? Probably not. Is it more like two, three, four months away? That’s more likely given what you traditionally see with the epidemiological viral spreads that we anticipate COVID to be.”

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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