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COVID-19

Hollidaysburg: District OKs form for mask exemption

The Hollidaysburg Area School Board approved a form to request a student be exempted from wearing a mask on Wednesday. The district will continue to use the form, which was implemented Tuesday. So far, according to Superintendent Robert Gildea, 13% of students have submitted the form for medical exemption. Votes in favor of approving the form were from Rick Gallagher, Nicole Hartman, Melissa Mitchell, Manny Nichols and Ken Snyder. Votes against were from Board President Ron Sommer, Lonna Frye and Doug Stephens. Board Vice President Scott Brenneman was absent. Despite police being ...

C-K letting students opt out of masks

CLAYSBURG — The Claysburg-Kimmel School Board approved non-medical, parent choice mask exemptions for students Wednesday evening. District officials said a form will be available online by noon today for parents to opt their children out of masking. The decision came after more than an hour-and-a-half of public comment where parents, students, district alumni and residents mostly voiced their disapproval and anger with the state mask mandate and enforcement at local schools. At the conclusion of the public comment period, board member Mandi Daugherty moved to allow the exemptions ...

UPMC touts effectiveness of vaccinations, treatments

Statistics shared by UPMC in a news conference Wednesday emphasize the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, while showing that younger people are at risk if unvaccinated, including children. Unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who have received their shots, according to a panel of UPMC doctors. Unvaccinated adults under 50 are being hospitalized in recent weeks at UPMC 19 times more often than their vaccinated peers, the doctors said. And four times as many children are being hospitalized for COVID-19 in states with lagging ...

Walk-in COVID testing offered

A free indoor walk-in COVID-19 testing is open for the general public in Centre County, according to a news release from the Department of Health. The site is available through a partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare and Centre County officials. Testing is available from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, through Oct. 31, at the Nittany Mall, Sears Auto Center, 183 Shiloh Road, State College. No appointments are necessary and testing is open to individuals from any county who are ages 3 and older. Individuals are not required to show symptoms of COVID-19 to be ...

COVID safety nets to expire

WASHINGTON — Mary Taboniar went 15 months without a paycheck, thanks to the COVID pandemic. A housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, the single mother of two saw her income completely vanish as the virus devastated the hospitality industry. For more than a year, ...

Lawsuit challenges Wolf mask mandate for schools

The Republican leader of the state Senate and a group of parents filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn the Wolf administration’s new mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools. The governor’s spokesperson dismissed what she called the GOP’s “effort at undermining public heath.” The suit, filed in Commonwealth Court, asserts that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam failed to comply with state law when she ordered masks to be worn in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities. The masking order isn’t valid because it didn’t go through ...