PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Maine is restoring pre-pandemic requirements that people show they’re looking for a job to receive unemployment benefits, the state’s Department of Labor announced Thursday.
With vaccines widely available, businesses are reopening and need help especially with the summer tourism season approaching, Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said in a statement.
“Thousands of Maine people lost their jobs during the pandemic, through no fault of their own. Now it is our goal to get them back to work,” she said.
Work search requirements had been relaxed because of the pandemic, but now unemployment recipients will have to show they are actively looking for work and willing to accept jobs for which they’re qualified.
In many cases, people receiving unemployment benefits can go back to work part-time and still retain the $300 weekly stipend offered by Congress through this summer, she said.
In other pandemic-related news:
THE NUMBERS
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has gone from 442 new cases per day on April 20 to 309 new cases per day as of May 4.
The Associated Press is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday reported an additional 318 infections and two deaths in the state.
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VACCINES
The number of eligible Mainers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus approached 50% on Thursday.
While that’s good news, health officials are encouraging people to be sure to hold to recommended intervals for Moderna and Pfizer shots. Pfizer and Moderna recommend 21 and 28 days in between doses, respectively.
Getting the second dose earlier than recommended could impact the long-term protection offered by the second dose, Dr. Dora Mills, chief health improvement officer with Maine Health, told WMTW-TV.
“If you get the second dose too early, your body and immune system wouldn’t have the opportunity to build the response that the second dose is supposed to boost,” she said.
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