Gov. Roy Cooper says there are encouraging signs in North Carolina’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cooper says to help, the state must make strong investments now to help people and businesses recover.
On Thursday, the governor recommended emergency recovery and resilience investments for a stronger North Carolina.
The recommendations include:
- $695 million from the more than $4 billion in state funds currently on the bottom line
- Funds for more testing and vaccinations
- Investing $37 million more in emergency state funds to support small businesses and market tourism/hospitality industry
- Eliminate ABC permit fees to assist bars and restaurants
- Nearly $2 billion emergency assistance for public and private K-12 schools and higher education
Cooper says the budget recommendations come from bipartisan input from legislators, educators, health experts, and more.
You can view the governor’s full emergency budget recommendations here.
According to Thursday’s update from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been 781,802 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state.
9,728 of those cases have resulted in death, and Wednesday marked North Carolina’s deadliest day in terms of coronavirus-related deaths.
On the latest state map, Wayne County has been downgraded to “Yellow,” meaning significant community spread of the coronavirus.
