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Federal Relief Should Prioritize Coronavirus Hot Spots, Rep. Himes Says

Susan Walsh
/
AP
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., questions top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, and career Foreign Service officer George Kent, at the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in November.

Connecticut’s U.S. congressional delegation says the federal government should prioritize hot zones, like the greater New York area, as it gives out coronavirus relief.

Connecticut hospitals and other health care providers will receive hundreds of millions from the $2 trillion federal aid package. U.S. Representative Jim Himes represents Fairfield County, one of the hardest hit counties in America. He says it’s not enough.

“Sadly, some of these allocations have been made not on the basis of where the epidemic is most intense, and of course Connecticut is, along with New York towards the top of that list.”

Himes says many providers are facing revenue loss from normal procedures that had to be postponed because of increased demands from COVID-19 patients.

Connecticut has the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read the latest on WSHU’s coronavirus coverage here.

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Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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