State by State: July 2020

NEW HAMPSHIRE: CARES Act Provides Responder Benefits

First responders and local governments will receive new benefits to help ease the burden of the COVID-19 outbreak, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced. Full-time police officers, firefighters, EMTs, corrections officers, and other first responders will be eligible for $300 weekly. Part-time workers in these fields, along with volunteer firefighters and EMTs, can receive $150 a week. New Hampshire received $1.25 billion of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which is being allocated by the Governor’s Office for Economic Relief and Recovery.

TEXAS: Code Green Campaign Names Board Members

The Code Green Campaign has announced the addition of Scott Moore, Ed Moreland, Ken Saunders, and R.J. Morrison to its board of directors, as well as the transition of Fiona Thomas to president.

Moore is an active volunteer firefighter/EMT and consultant for the American Ambulance Association. Moreland has served in a variety of EMS roles in the past 30 years and is an American College of Paramedic Executives fellow. Saunders joins Code Green from Texas’ Austin-Travis County EMS. Morrison is managing director at FirstMed Ambulance in California.

FLORIDA: DOH Waives Live Clinical Training Requirement

In response to the COVID-19 emergency, Florida State Surgeon General Scott A. Rivkees, MD, decreed an emergency order June 1 that adjusts the live clinical training requirement for EMS students in the state. The order reads in part: “Emergency medical services training programs may, with the approval of the training program medical director, substitute supervised remote live videoconferencing or simulation for the clinical and field internship requirement of Florida Administrative Code Rule 64J-1.020(6), until the expiration of Executive Order No. 20- 52, unless extended.”

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey EMT Dies of COVID-19 Complications

David Pinto, an EMT and former chief of the Wallington Fire Department, died May 17 from complications related to COVID-19. He was 70. Pinto, of Wallington, was an EMT with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which oversees the Meadowlands complex. He also served as fire chief in his hometown in 2001 and was once a member of the Board of Education. Pinto was the third EMT from the NJSEA to die from COVID-19, following the losses of John Ferrarella and Dr. Frank Molinari. Across the state at least 15 EMTs have died from the disease at the time of publication.