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COVID-19

When to expect payments

As the latest federal pandemic relief package makes its way to President Joe Biden’s desk, Americans may be wondering when the benefits will reach them. The $1.9 trillion known as the “American Rescue Plan” is massive, both in size and scope. It includes direct payments to most Americans, aid to small businesses, financial help for schools and much more to help the country recover from the financial ravages of the pandemic. The house is expected to give its final approval early this week and then it heads to Biden for his signature. The timing of its passage is crucial — ...

Biden stakes presidency on relief bill

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden wants America to know that he’s from the government and he’s here to help. That sentiment became a well-worn punchline under Ronald Reagan and shaped the politics of both parties for four decades. Democrat Bill Clinton declared the era of big government over in the 1990s, Barack Obama largely kept his party in the same lane and Republican Donald Trump campaigned on the premise that Washington was full of morons, outplayed by the Chinese and others. But Biden is now staking his presidency on the idea that the government can use his $1.9 trillion ...

Virus relief bill gives Pa. $13B

HARRISBURG — State, county and city governments in Pennsylvania will receive about $13 billion from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package making its way through Congress, a huge sum of money at a time when the state is projecting a multibillion-dollar deficit. The state’s share of that will be about $7.3 billion while the other $5.7 billion will go to local governments, officials with the Independent Fiscal Office told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday. Governments can use the money to pay for costs associated with responding to the pandemic or to backfill revenue ...

Long-term care sees virus cases fall

State and federal governments didn’t prioritize long-term care when the COVID-19 pandemic began a year ago, with catastrophic results — 170,000 dead nationwide, according to leaders of state and national long-term care associations. During a virtual news conference Monday, leaders said the government has prioritized the industry for vaccinations, though, which is reducing infection and death rates dramatically. “No question, (COVID-19) has been the worst crisis in the history of the long-term care sector,” the CEO of the American Health Care Association said Monday. It ...

Counties unhappy over vaccine share

HARRISBURG — Four of Pennsylvania’s seven most heavily populated counties are airing their unhappiness over the size of their allotment of coronavirus vaccines, saying Monday that a meeting with Gov. Tom Wolf’s top health official did not resolve their concerns. Leaders of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties — home to more than 2.5 million people — called a Sunday meeting with acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam “disappointing and frustrating.” They say less-populated counties in Pennsylvania have received disproportionately bigger allotments of the ...

Region’s virus numbers heading the wrong way

Three weeks ago — and again, two weeks ago — when the state Department of Health published its Friday updates for the early-warning COVID-19 dashboard, all three major metrics for all six local counties were trending in the right direction, an indication that things were getting decisively better after a long winter outbreak. Last week brought a reversal in four of those 18 metrics, despite continued, if slow, progress on COVID-19 vaccinations. This week, the reversal deepened, with 12 of the 18 metrics now unfavorable, despite more vaccinations — and Saturday’s one-year ...