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COVID-19

Schools stand pat on masks

Barring a change in state or federal mandates, area school districts are proceeding with plans to generally make masks optional when classes resume this month. The only time masks will be required, as per federal mandate, is on public transportation, such as school buses, Spring Cove School District Superintendent Betsy Baker said. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its masking guidelines and recommended masks indoors in counties with moderate and high transmission rates, regardless of vaccination status. Blair County remains in the moderate range, ...

Bellwood schools to encourage mask wearing

BELLWOOD — When Bellwood-Antis students begin classes Aug. 26, they will be in their classrooms and they will be encouraged to wear masks. “At this time, the district strongly encourages everyone to wear masks,” Superintendent Thomas McInroy said. However, McInroy said masks are “a parents’ and employees’ choice.” There is one exception, though, as masks are required to be worn while riding on school buses. “The district has no control over that decision as we are mandated by the CDC, as are the rest of the schools in the state,” McInroy said. The district’s ...

Unvaccinated inmates to be housed together

HARRISBURG (AP) — The Pennsylvania prison system announced Thursday it is stopping in-person visits for the thousands of inmates who are not vaccinated against COVID-19. The Corrections Department also said it will begin housing unvaccinated inmates together next week. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said the policy will limit the contact that the unvaccinated have with potential carriers of the coronavirus. The changes won’t affect inmates’ access to classes and programs. Additional terminals will be installed in the unvaccinated units for video visitation. Nearly 8,000 ...

Shipping snags spur firms to mull retreat from China

WASHINGTON — Game maker Eric Poses last year created The Worst-Case Scenario Card Game, making a wry reference to the way the coronavirus had upended normal life. He had no idea. In a twist that Poses never could have predicted, his game itself would become caught up in the latest ...

Pitt nanobodies showing promise

Research over the last nine months has shown that fragments of antibodies developed from llamas by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine can disable COVID-19 in animals — including variants like Delta. The antibody fragments first showed the capability of disabling COVID-19 in a petri dish, according to a news release Tuesday from the school. Research has shown through microscopic observation that the “nanobodies” work in three distinct ways against the virus — a finding that could provide guidance for developing “future vaccines and therapeutics that may work ...

Biden toughens vaccination rules for federal gov’t

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers as he denounced an “American tragedy” of rising-yet-preventable deaths among unvaccinated U.S. employees and others. Federal workers will be required to attest ...