LINCOLN – Monday, at his daily coronavirus press briefing, Governor Pete Ricketts announced that testing has begun in Grand Island and Omaha as part of the Test Nebraska initiative.
The Governor also called attention to a childcare referral resource created by the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF) in partnership with State agencies. NCFF Senior Vice President Betty Medinger joined the Governor to talk about the new childcare referral website.
Additionally, Gov. Ricketts reported that Critical Access Hospitals in Nebraska will receive more than $270 million in federal funds as part of the “Provider Relief Fund” within the CARES Act.
Gov. Ricketts: Six Rules to Keep Nebraska Healthy
- Throughout the month of May, we are reminding people to follow our Six Rules to Keep Nebraska Healthy.
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- Stay home. Do not take unnecessary trips outside the home. Respect the ten-person limit.
- Socially distance your work. Work from home or use the six-foot rule as much as possible in the workplace.
- Shop alone and only shop once a week. Do not take family with you.
- Help kids follow social distancing. Play at home. No group sports. And no playgrounds.
- Help seniors stay at home by shopping for them. Do not visit long-term care facilities.
- Exercise daily at home or with an appropriately socially-distanced activity.
- As pieces of the state reopen, I want to remind Nebraskans that following good social distancing practices while you’re at home and in public is important.
- Restrictions will fluctuate as needed, and we hope to keep loosening restrictions.
- This will require people to take personal responsibility to keep socially distanced with more people in public.
Gov. Ricketts: Test Nebraska
- We have over 137,000 assessments completed on TestNebraska.com as of this morning.
- Test Nebraska is launching today in Grand Island and Omaha.
- Testing will be available in these communities throughout this week, and we expect additional mobile testing sites to become available shortly.
- I’d like to thank the National Guard for their phenomenal work in assisting with testing.
- Over the weekend, everyone who signed up with Test Nebraska received a follow up email asking them to update their assessment. Please take a moment to update your information.
- People can develop symptoms quickly, and we will ask people to update their assessment from time-to-time as needed.
- We have videos on my YouTube channel in English and Spanish that organizations can use to promote Test Nebraska. You can find them by clicking here.
- Again, the website to take an assessment is TestNebraska.com.
Betty Medinger: Childcare Availability
- During the pandemic, Nebraskans have had an urgent need to locate childcare options.
- In partnership with State agencies and other organizations, we’ve created an online tool to help Nebraskans find childcare: nechildcarereferral.org.
- The website is a great resource that we can build on moving forward to provide a robust childcare referral tool here in our state.
Gov Ricketts: Critical Access Hospital Funding
- Last week, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced additional CARES Act “Provider Relief Fund” payments to the nation’s hospitals.
- The national distribution was $10 billion to providers in rural areas.
- Distributions to Nebraska facilities total $272,150,859.
- Visit hhs.gov/providerrelief for additional information.