CONCORD – Gov. Chris Sununu announced that New Hampshire is receiving approximately $82 million in federal funding to help schools around the state address issues surrounding the coronavirus disease.

“The Education Stabilization Fund portion of the CARES Act will provide New Hampshire approximately $82 million to help schools and institutions of higher education address issues surrounding COVID,” Sununu said Friday during a press conference.

Approximately $9 million will be allocated to provide discretionary grants to k-12 students and higher education institutions significantly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and provide educational services, childcare, early childhood education and social and emotional supports. Sununu said there is a lot of flexibility with the first $9 million out of that stabilization fund.

Approximately $38 million will be provided directly to k-12 schools distributed proportionally to the federal Every Child Succeeds Act Title One formula. Sununu said that is the formula traditionally used for a lot of the education funding within the state.

Approximately $36 million will be provided to colleges and universities in New Hampshire.

With the CARES Act, Sununu said schools also will be able to cover costs associated with remote learning, costs associated with cleaning and sanitizing facilities and extend the waiver on meals outside of the school environment through September 2020. It also will allow local schools to provide mental and emotional support for all students.

Moreover, making sure health care workers, either in long-term care facilities or hospitals, have personal protective equipment and also the financial resources are paramount pieces to combating this crisis, according to the governor.

“As part of those efforts, early next week, I’ll be releasing a plan currently in its final stages that will provide financial assistance to long-term care facilities and Medicaid providers that are struggling to retain workforce,” Sununu said. “These workforce incentives will help support those on the front lines of the crisis and ensure that our loved ones within those facilities have the care that they need.”

On Friday, the state’s Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette announced 66 new positive cases of COVID-19 in New Hampshire, bringing the state’s total to 885. One additional death also was reported, bringing the state’s total to 22.

“The one additional death is a confirmed death, not necessarily in the last 24 hours, but we have received confirmation in the last 24 hours of that death, and that person is from Hanover health care facilities,” Shibinette said.

Earlier this week, officials announced COVID-19 outbreaks at three long-term care facilities, including The Huntington at Nashua, the Crotched Mountain Foundation and Hanover Hill Health Care Center in Manchester. This recently confirmed death brings the Hanover Hill facility up to five deaths.

The increase of 66 positive cases reflects batch reporting that the state gets from the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory approximately once a week for their positive results for New Hampshire residents.

“Ten of those 66 came from Massachusetts Public Health,” Shibinette said. “They weren’t all positive tests from last night.”

In addition, Shibinette said that officials have identified a couple facilities around the state that have either open units or maybe a closed long term care facility that could be used if a COVID-19 only facility was needed to be set up. When looking around the country, she said some have been successful, while others have not been. However, the state is not close to needing to activate one of those facilities.

“Right now, what we encourage our facilities to do is that if you have a group of COVID-positive patients or patients that are displaying symptoms of COVID, that you cohort them together,” Shibinette said. “This is not uncommon. Long-term care facilities do this also when you have influenza in your building or a norovirus in your building, is cohorting both the residents and the caregivers that are taking care of those residents.”

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