Published March 08. 2021 12:05AM
WESTERLY (AP) Officials in Westerly are looking into making the serving of beer while at the beach permanent.
The town last summer allowed restaurants and bars to serve beer along the beach in Misquamicut as a way to help them make money amid shutdowns and restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
At a town council meeting this past week, Town Manager Mark Rooney and police Chief Shawn Lacey were authorized to move ahead with plans to make the policy permanent, The Sun of Westerly reported.
Lacey said there were few problems last summer but noted that crowds were smaller than normal because of coronavirus limitations. He said a system must be developed to make sure patrons do not wander onto private property or public beaches while carrying beer.
With more than 1 million Connecticut residents now vaccinated, tens of thousands of people 55 to 64 years of age began scheduling and receiving COVID-19 shots Monday as the state proceeded with its age-based rollout of the vaccine.
Phones and websites were busy and most available appointments were filled within a few hours, Gov. Ned Lamont said during a virtual news briefing at which he defended his approach to the effort, which differs from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that call for prioritizing those with underlying medical conditions and working in certain essential jobs.
“Age prioritizes public health,” Lamont said.
With many older residents now scheduling their first or second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center has announced it will use
Published February 24. 2021 5:49PM | Updated February 25. 2021 5:27PM
Stonington With many older residents now scheduling their first or second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center has announced it will use its handicapped-accessible bus to drive people to get their shot.
Center Executive Director Susan Sedensky said Wednesday that residents of Stonington, North Stonington and Westerly simply have to call the PNC at (860) 599-3285 to schedule a ride. The bus will pick them up at their home, drive them to the vaccine location, wait for them to get the shot and then drive them home.
She said just one or two people are allowed on the bus at any one time to ensure social distancing. The bus is available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London and Westerly Hospital are facing reductions in Medicare payments because of the relatively high rates of complications their patients developed during stays between mid-2017 and mid-2019, which was long before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Backus Hospital in Norwich faces no such penalty.
All three of the hospitals serving the region will get lower reimbursements for Medicare patients in the current fiscal year based on their patient readmission rates for cases between July 2016 and June 2019.
The penalties, assessed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, were reported this week by Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit that’s been tracking Medicare’s Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program and its Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program since they were instituted in connection with the Affordable Care Act.