FirstEnergy Corp., an electric utility company that services Pennsylvania, is offering financial assistance to its customers who need help paying their electric bills due to the coronavirus crisis. The Ohio-based company provides electricity service to Pennsylvanians through its subsidiaries Met-Ed, Penelec, West Penn Power and Pennsylvania Power.

Creditsafe USA, an Allentown-based company that provides company credit reports for businesses throughout the globe, has now created a COVID-19 Impact Score. The new scoring system is free and designed to help businesses identify the risks the coronavirus epidemic poses to their bottom line.

E.T. Browne Drug Co., manufacturer of Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula and Coconut Oil Formula skin and hair care products, said its East Stroudsburg-based manufacturing facility, Hayward Laboratories, has started producing sanitizer for immediate distribution, to address widespread supply shortages in the wake of COVID-19.

Wardog Spirits, a distillery at Black River Farms Vineyard & Winery in Lower Saucon Township, is the latest to shift from distilling spirits to producing hand sanitizer. Wardog’s hand sanitizer will be donated to local emergency workers and healthcare personnel. 

A Berks County screen printer is working on a way to support itself and other small businesses in the region by creating T-shirts businesses and non-profits can sell to customers and supporters on social media.

OraSure Technologies of Bethlehem said it earned a $710,310 contract from the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop a pan-SARS-coronavirus antigen rapid in-home self-test. The test uses saliva samples and provides results in 20 minutes.

INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Plymouth Meeting-based pharmaceutical company, will test the first dose of its COVID-19 vaccine today on a healthy volunteer.

A new online portal to identify the needs of Pennsylvania manufacturers that are, or could, provide products for the COVID-19 pandemic was launched over the weekend by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

Pennsylvania businesses with in-person operations permitted under the governor’s life-sustaining business orders, now have a new set of guidelines for maintaining and cleaning their buildings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Gov. Tom Wolf is recommending that all Pennsylvanians wear a mask when they leave their homes as COVID-19 cases steadily rise in the state.