Public Health and Negative Economic Impacts. Background Since the first case of COVID–19 was discovered in the United States in January 2020, the disease has infected over 50 million and killed over 800,000 Americans.12 The disease—and necessary measures to respond—have had an immense public health and economic impact on millions of Americans across many areas of life, as detailed below in the respective sections on Public Health and Negative Economic Impacts. Since the release of the interim final rule in May 2021, the country has made major progress in fighting the disease and rebuilding the economy but faces continued risks, as illustrated by the spread of the Delta variant and the resulting slowdown in the economic recovery. The SLFRF program, and Treasury’s interim final rule, provide substantial flexibility to recipients to respond to pandemic impacts in their local community; this flexibility is designed to help state, local, and Tribal governments adapt to the evolving public health emergency and tailor their response as needs evolve and to the particular local needs of their communities. Indeed, state, local, and Tribal governments face continued needs to respond at scale to the public health emergency. This includes continued public health efforts to slow the spread of the disease, to increase vaccination rates and provide vaccinations to new populations as they become eligible, to protect individuals living in congregate facilities, and to address the broader impacts of the pandemic on public health. Similarly, while a strong economic recovery is underway, the economy remains 3.9 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level, pointing to the continued need for response efforts, with low-income workers and communities of color facing elevated rates of unemployment and economic hardship.13 Long-standing disparities in health and economic outcomes in or nonentitlement unit of government). Analyses provides Treasury’s analysis of To reiterate, for recipient governments covered by a specific restriction, that restriction applies to all eligible use categories and any use of funds under the SLFRF program. Specifically: • For states and territories only, funds may not be used to offset directly or the impacts of this rulemaking, as required by several laws, regulations, and Executive Orders. Throughout this Supplementary Information, statements using the terms ‘‘should’’ or ‘‘must’’ refer to requirements, except when used in 12 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID Data Tracker, xxxx://xx...
