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COVID-19

Cambria opens COVID test site

A free COVID-19 testing site is opening for the public in Cambria County through a partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare. “We continue to offer testing across the commonwealth as the fight against COVID-19 is not over and highly contagious variants continue spreading,” Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter said. “Testing is the best way to identify and help stop the spread of the virus. We continue to work with partners across the state ensuring the consistent accessibility of COVID-19 testing.” Testing in Cambria County is available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ...

State seeks more hospital beds, staff in surge

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has begun working to boost the number of hospital beds and organize “strike teams” of extra health care workers for hospitals and nursing homes struggling with surging COVID-19-related caseloads and staffing shortages, Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said Friday. The Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency are coordinating the undertaking after getting requests for help, Wolf’s office said. The plans involve adding hospital beds within regions for 60 days to absorb patients from swamped hospitals. Additional ...

Free COVID-19 testing extended

Free COVID-19 testing has been extended through next week at the Blair County Convention Center, 1 Convention Drive, Altoona. Drive-thru clinics will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Monday, Jan. 10, through Friday, Jan. 14. Mid-nasal passage swab PCR tests will be performed. Testing ...

COVID focus turns to hospital stays

The explosive increase in U.S. coronavirus case counts is raising alarm, but some experts believe the focus should instead be on COVID-19 hospital admissions. And those aren’t climbing as fast. Dr. Anthony Fauci, for one, said Sunday on ABC that with many infections causing few or no symptoms, “it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases.” Other experts argue that case counts still have value. As the super-contagious omicron variant rages across the U.S., new COVID-19 cases per day have more than tripled over the past two ...

Treatments not vaccine substitute

There is one monoclonal antibody treatment and two antiviral pills that work against omicron variant of COVID-19. But none of these new medications are substitutes for vaccination, said experts who spoke during a Facebook live event hosted by the state Department of Health Tuesday. “Vaccines and boosters are the first line of defense,” said Pennsylvania Surgeon General Denise Johnson. Monoclonal antibodies and antiviral pills are a “last resort,” said Dr. Pablo Tebas, an infectious diseases physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It’s better to get ...

FEMA to help hospitals with COVID surge

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania hospitals overwhelmed with the latest COVID-19 surge will get help from federal teams as Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration finalizes the details, Wolf’s office said Tuesday. Wolf’s administration did not give details about how many people will be in the federal “strike teams,” what sort of expertise or equipment they will bring with them and when they could feasibly arrive at hospitals in Pennsylvania. In a statement, Wolf’s acting secretary of health, Keara Klinepeter, said Wolf’s administration is working to determine which hospitals will ...