UNICEF seeks more aid for at-risk kids in the Middle East
The U.N. children’s agency appealed Monday for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
Yemen is a top concern, said Ted Chaiban, the regional chief of UNICEF. After five years of civil war, half the health centers in Yemen no longer operate. Two million children are malnourished, including 400,000 who suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
“It was already critical to address the needs of children in Yemen. With COVID-19, now you’ve got this extra lawyer of vulnerability,” Chaiban said, adding that the increased funding is needed for a range of programs across the region to soften the blow of the pandemic.
Shake Shack to return $10 million in small-business loan money
Shake Shack, one of several large restaurant chains that secured federal loans through the coronavirus stimulus law meant to help small businesses, said Sunday night that it is giving all $10 million back.
The New York-based hipster-favorite burger company is among more than a dozen companies with revenues in the hundreds of millions that are reported to have received money from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, which set aside $349 billion in the stimulus law called the CARES Act to help small businesses keep their workers on the payroll.
Less than two weeks after it started, the program has already run out of money.
In a statement Sunday night on LinkedIn, Danny Meyer, Shake Shack's founder and CEO of its parent company, CEO Union Square Hospitality Group, and Randy Garutti, Shake Shack's CEO, said they had no idea the money would dry up so quickly, and after they were able to secure separate funding last week, "we've decided to immediately return the entire $10 million" so restaurants that "need it most can get it now."
Nursing home transparency rules announced
The federal agency that oversees nursing homes announced new transparency measures Sunday requiring the disclosure of coronavirus cases to patients' families and public health officials.
Speaking at a White House briefing, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, called the new policies "important" and said they will support a nationwide effort to track the virus and slow its spread.
"As we reopen the United States, our surveillance effort around the virus will begin in nursing homes," Verma said.
Reese Loggins, a 10-year-old boy from High Point, North Carolina, who's battling leukemia at Duke University Hospital, looked outside his window and found a surprise birthday gift hanging in mid-air.
Because of visiting restrictions and social distancing guidelines, his parents wanted to make the day extra special for Reese. It was the second birthday he would spend in the hospital.
“It’s been really tough,” said his mother, Michelle Loggins. “The closer his birthday got, the more he was talking about biking, how much he misses biking around.”
The morning of Reese's birthday last Wednesday, construction crews used a crane to lift a bicycle gift up to his fifth-floor window, sang "Happy Birthday" and displayed a banner atop a nearby building that read, "Happy 10th Birthday Reese.” Then nurses and other staff entered Reese’s room and sang "Happy birthday."