Breaking News

COVID-19

HASD reports new virus cases

Two Hollidaysburg Area School District buildings reached their COVID-19 case thresholds this week according to Superintendent Robert Gildea. In letters sent to parents Wednesday and Thursday, Gildea said a fourth person tested positive at the junior high school and two people tested positive at Charles W. Longer Elementary. Gildea said all junior high cases are students, while a student and a staff member tested positive at Longer. Contact tracing was completed for all cases, and those identified as being in direct contact with infected individuals are quarantining. Because ...

Virus outlook brightens in US

More than three months into the U.S. vaccination drive, many of the numbers paint an increasingly encouraging picture, with 70% of Americans 65 and older receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and COVID-19 deaths dipping below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since ...

State nears 1M cases

Pennsylvania neared 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday amid rising infections and word of a setback in the state’s accelerating COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The Department of Health reported another 4,667 new cases — the highest single-day number since early February — to bring Pennsylvania to within a few hundred of the milestone. Daily infections have risen more than 10% in two weeks, with hospitalizations beginning to drift up, too. “All of our numbers are going the wrong way,” Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County Board of ...

Feds: Pitt official stole 13K masks

The University of Pittsburgh's former director of emergency management stole more than 13,600 face masks meant for school employees and students and sold them online in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a federal indictment announced Wednesday. Christopher D. Casamento, 42, of Pittsburgh, stole N95 respirators, surgical masks and particulate respirator masks between Feb. 28 and March 22 last year, selling them on his eBay vendor page, “steel-city-motor-toys,” at “significant price mark ups,” the grand jury's indictment said. Shipping to buyers outside ...

State eases mask mandate for those who are vaccinated

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has eased its mask mandate to allow people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to gather with other vaccinated people without masks or social distancing, state health officials said Monday. The new rules also apply to vaccinated people gathering with people from a single household who have not been vaccinated but who are considered at low risk of severe disease from the coronavirus — such as vaccinated grandparents visiting with healthy grandchildren. Vaccinated people also no longer have to quarantine following an exposure to someone with ...

Pa. schools to get billions in COVID-19 relief aid

Nearly $40 million is heading for Blair County public school districts from the American Rescue Plan of 2021 Act, with more than half of that going to Altoona Area, according to an online database. The Altoona Area School District is expected to receive more than $24 million. AASD Community Relations Director Paula Foreman said the district is “very appreciative of the federal government’s efforts to support public education during the pandemic.” Foreman added that “funds will be used for several purposes,” including mental health services and access to technology ...