EASTON, Pa. â Northampton County will offer staff members of Gracedale, the county nursing home, $750 each to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
That could cost as much as $490,000 if all 650 employees get the shot. The payment is an incentive. County Executive Lamont McClure said employees cannot be required to get the shots. Lives and livelihoods will be saved by a robust vaccination program, McClure said.
He said the county will use federal CARES Act money to pay the incentive. The county received $27.6 million from the federal government for pandemic relief. It kept some and distributed the rest to nonprofit groups, small businesses, schools and local governments.
EASTON, Pa. - Northampton County Council approved a final round of grants Thursday to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
County Executive Lamont McClure said that over four rounds of grants, 766 small businesses received as much as $15,000 each to get through the pandemic. The money came out of the county s $27.6 million share of the federal CARES Act. Towns, non-profit groups such as ArtsQuest, schools including Lehigh University and the county itself also benefited.
About $10.7 million, or 39%, of the CARES funding went to businesses, McClure said at council s meeting Thursday. Our small businesses will really need that boost to help them survive, McClure said. The meeting started at 4:35 p.m., just a few minutes after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced a three-week ban on indoor dining at restaurants and other restrictions on businesses in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus.