The heroic efforts of our medical personnel have been nothing less than extraordinary these past few weeks. They rightfully deserve recognition and our praise. However, there is another group of care takers that have not been recognized to the same degree and are just as worthy of our attention-- the health care professionals at our long term and congregate care facilities. 

A certified quality infection control nurse at a local nursing home screening employees

As we have seen from the statistics released this week, our senior care facilities have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis due to the age of the residents and their close proximity to one another. The conditions at these facilities are extreme; they lack personal protective equipment (PPE), rapid testing kits,  sanitizers, and cleaning supplies. What's more, they are operating under extreme conditions, short staffed, and under constant stress. 

I am extremely grateful to the health care professionals who are working so hard to care for our elderly. They too deserve our gratitude and our praise for making such significant personal sacrifices in order to keep our seniors safe. We will be pulling together a collective effort to recognize these health care professionals very soon. When we have the details, I'll make them available in this newsletter.

Tomorrow, the Department of Labor and Employment will  begin taking unemployment benefit applications under the CARES Act, as well as roll out a new unemployment benefit for self-employed and independent contractors. 

Monthly town hall on"Taking care of mind, body and spirit during the COVID crisis"

There were more than 100,000 unemployment claims filed last week, and the number of Coloradans out of work has risen to over 230,000. Already more people have filed a claim since the COVID-19 crisis began than all of last year. This extreme level has overwhelmed the system at times. The labor department will launch some new features to their site in order to deal with overload of cases. 

Some of the changes to the system include  a brand new online application system to take claims filed under the CARES Act, a new 80 person call center, and a Virtual Town Hall to answer claimant questions. The Virtual Town Halls will be offered on Monday, April 20th at 9:15 am, the other at 11:30 am for Spanish speaking claimants. Go to coloradoui.gov to register.