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COVID-19

Work search rules to resume

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will resume work search requirements in July for hundreds of thousands of people receiving unemployment compensation, a top Wolf administration official said Monday. Gov. Tom Wolf’s acting labor and industry secretary, Jennifer Berrier, told a state House of Representatives committee hearing the requirement will resume July 18, meaning people claiming jobless benefits will have to satisfy the requirements during the previous week. She also said a work registration requirement will resume in September. The requirements have been waived by Wolf under his ...

Area COVID-19 numbers improve

As it did last week, Friday’s update of the state’s early-warning COVID-19 dashboard showed definitive improvement in local conditions. In all six local counties, the number of new cases, the number of new cases per 100,000 residents or incidence rate, the test positivity rate and the average daily hospitalization count all dropped — except that Blair Countty’s test positivity rate remained the same. The most consistent improvements were in Centre County, which had the largest drop in new cases, down 47 to 53; the lowest incidence rate, with 32 cases per 100,000 residents; ...

Blair prison sets up vaccination clinics

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Those in charge of the Blair County Prison recently followed through on plans to make COVID-19 vaccinations available to inmates and staff. Warden Abbie Tate told the prison board on Thursday that Deputy Warden James Eckard worked with Tyrone Community Pharmacy to set up the prison’s vaccination clinic. About 40 shots were given on May 14, in the prison’s laundry, Tate said. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine proved to be popular because it’s a one-shot vaccine, but recipients also had the option of getting the Moderna vaccine administered in two shots. The ...

Local hotel industry on the rebound

The hotel industry around the nation and the world experienced major losses in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, but the Altoona area has done an impressive job rebounding compared to some of the major markets across Pennsylvania, a survey said. According to STR, a travel research statistics group, 2020 was officially the worst recorded year for the hospitality industry. For the first time in history, there were a reported 1 billion unsold room nights — more than the 786 million unsold room nights during the 2009 great recession. While the industry as a whole is still ...

State’s vaccine rate hits 50%

Pennsylvania marked a milestone on Thursday, as 50% of adults statewide are considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The milestone comes as state officials fired a company that performed contact tracing and exposed tens of thousands of residents’ private medical information. The Wolf administration says it will lift an order requiring unvaccinated people to wear masks in public once 70% of Pennsylvanians aged 18 and older are fully vaccinated, meaning at least two weeks beyond the last required dose. Beam, the health secretary, said she expects the state to reach that mark in ...

Businesses struggling to find workers

Many area businesses are having trouble finding employees, largely due to generous and extended unemployment compensation benefits that disincentivize work, some say. “Practically every business you talk to can’t get people,” said Blair County Chamber of Commerce CEO Joe Hurd. ...