Much has been made of the insufficient federal efforts to get money and personal protective equipment to front-line medical workers during this pandemic . But many of Connecticut’s nonprofit community care providers have a bone to pick with the state in that regard. Connecticut Public Radio’s John Henry Smith spoke with Barry Simon, the CEO of Oak Hill, the state’s largest nonprofit social services provider.

With spring in full force, many gardeners are planting violas and pansies. It reminds me to plant some edible flowers in our garden this year. Not all flowers are edible and not all flowers are tasty to eat, but there are many that are a delight to the eyes and tongue.

Black Americans are disproportionately contracting and dying from COVID-19 . It’s no different in Connecticut, where about 12% of the state’s population is black, but the rates of infections and deaths are higher when compared to white residents, according to data that includes a patient's race or ethnicity.

When Connecticut schools closed in mid-March to slow the spread of the coronavirus, most school nurses thought they'd be out of work for a while. But when COVID-19 drive-thru testing began in the Bristol-Burlington region, school nurses from the local health district stepped up to help staff the specimen collection station.

As the world shifts to online communication during this pandemic, people are finding creative ways to replicate face-to-face situations in the virtual world -- think business meetings, online cocktail hours and livestreaming concerts. But technology hasn’t quite caught up with at least one type of real-life endeavor -- choral singing.

Grocery store workers want help from the state to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in their workplaces. They’re asking the governor to label them ‘front line workers’, a move that would help them blunt the impact of the coronavirus.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Mary Gotlibowski was still going from hospital to hospital, working as an emergency room recovery coach and meeting with patients who had survived a drug overdose or those who had come in seeking help for addiction. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread throughout Connecticut and hospitals began to admit infected patients, Gotlibowski and other coaches had to leave their posts in the emergency departments.

The coronavirus has hit many hospital emergency rooms like a storm. Connecticut Public Radio’s Diane Orson spoke with Dr. Patrick Broderick, chair of emergency medicine at Danbury Hospital -- part of Nuvance Health in Fairfield County.

The first woman to lead Connecticut House Republicans says she will not be running for re-election in November. Minority Leader Themis Klarides will be ending a 22-year run as the representative of the 114th district. She spoke with Connecticut Public Radio's John Henry Smith for All Things Considered.

As the number of critically ill coronavirus patients began to rise in New Haven, several floors of Smilow Cancer Hospital were converted into intensive care wards. Sara Newman has been a nurse for 39 years and is the nurse manager overseeing the vast majority of Yale New Haven Hospital’s sickest COVID-19 patients.