Governor Ned Lamont announced the further easing of some COVID-19-related safety restrictions for businesses in the state Monday.

Starting May 1, restaurant curfew is moved from 11 p.m. to midnight, outdoor restrictions lifted, alcohol can be served without food, and no table size limit.

May 19 all remaining business restrictions will be lifted including social-distancing requirements (no mandates), 12 a.m. curfew lifted, no limits on gathering sizes. Also, movie theater capacity can go up to 100%. Read More

The American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. This program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as funds are used for eligible uses no later than March 11, 2023.

Under this announcement, details on application requirements, eligibility, and a program guide are now available in English at www.sba.gov/restaurants or in Spanish at www.sba.gov/restaurantes.

Eligible entities who have experienced pandemic-related revenue loss include:

The State Bond Commission voted Friday to fund a $5 million study and design to deepen New Haven Harbor’s navigation channel.

Under the plan, the channel will be deepened by five feet. The waterway basin will be widened to allow larger vessels to reach the terminals along the harbor, which is New England’s second largest port (after Boston). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to begin the dredging in October 2023. Read More

The US Federal trade Commission review has granted clearance for AstraZeneca’s proposed acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, achieving an important milestone in the completion process.

The clearance grant follows the end of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

Competition clearances have already been issued in countries such as Canada, Brazil and Russia, with a full list available on AstraZeneca’s website, astrazeneca.com.

Other global regulatory clearances that are pending, include countries from the EU, the UK and Japan. Read More

Downtown Crossing Phase 3* will begin the process of reconnecting Temple Street to Congress Avenue with pedestrian and bicycle-friendly streetscapes. Construction for Phase 3 will begin in May and last through the end of 2021.

Phase 3 will free previously unusable land for private economic development--the construction of 101 College Street: 500,000+ square feet of lab, research, and meeting space in support of New Haven’s burgeoning bioscience economy. This private development will expand the City’s tax base, add over 800 direct, well-paying bioscience jobs as well as spur approximately 7,000 additional jobs to the local economy, and further establish New Haven as a top bioscience hub. Read More