California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state has launched a program to provide daily free meals to the elderly who qualify for the scheme.
The “Restaurants Deliver: Home Meals for Seniors” launched on Friday is coordinated by federal, state, county and city authorities, according to the media report.
It is said to be the first program of its kind in the US.
According to the regulation, seniors who are qualified to receive the supply of three meals a day and seven days a week must be at high risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus or have compromised immune systems, and they need to be in a certain financial position.
Those who are eligible will be reimbursed $16 dollars for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $28 for dinner.
On Friday, during a daily briefing, Newsom said, “It’s not just about the meals”.
“It’s about a human connection, about someone just checking in as they’re delivering those meals and making sure people are OK.”
He estimated that there are over 5.7 million older adults in California and that 1.7 million of them live alone and may be unable to cook their own meals.
The United States recorded 1,258 Coronavirus deaths on Friday, the lowest daily toll in the country in nearly three weeks, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States is by far the hardest-hit country in the global pandemic, in terms of both confirmed infections and deaths.
Several businesses with permission to open, including some fitness centers and hair salons, remained shuttered in Atlanta Friday.
Meanwhile, the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has reached 197,245. A total of 2,830,051 people have been infected.