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COVID-19

Wolf: Close bars on holiday eve

Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest drinking night of the year, because few people work the next day, no one likes entertaining the night before hosting a big holiday meal, many people are home and eager to see old friends and the meal the next day is a good hangover cure, according to Bar & Club Stats. It won’t be a big night out for Pennsylvania this year, though, because Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday ordered that alcohol sales for in-house consumption end at 5 p.m. Wednesday — not to resume until mid-morning Thanksgiving. “Can I use the language I want?” asked Bill Lear, owner of ...

State aims to humanize fight against COVID-19

In an attempt to humanize the numbing pandemic statistics it shares every day, the Wolf administration Monday introduced the daughter of a man from northeast Pennsylvania who died recently of COVID-19, while announcing new restrictions designed to arrest a burgeoning caseload that one model predicts could triple last week’s daily record in December. Also on Monday, a Blair County native living in Washington spoke of his father who lay dying at UPMC Altoona — a reminder that one needn’t go far to humanize the depredations of the coronavirus. Bernie Thompson lives in Seattle now, ...

AASD, Tyrone report changes due to virus

Altoona Area School District has reported that several classes have been quarantined due to a positive COVID-19 test, while Tyrone Area has decided to change instruction models to help mitigate COVID-19 concerns. An individual in the Altoona Area High School has tested positive for COVID-19 and as a result, seven classes have been quarantined, according to an email sent to parents from the district. Individuals who have been identified as having “close contact” have received personal notification with further instructions from the school. All those identified as having close ...

UPMC must listen to its nurses

As Blair County ticks over 2,000 known cases of coronavirus, countless residents are seeking life-saving care at UPMC Altoona. As Registered Nurses, my coworkers and I know what kind of working conditions, staffing and safety protocols are needed to provide quality care for our patients and protect our community from continuing the spread of COVID-19, but UPMC isn’t listening to us. As nurses, we can only protect our patients and our community if we can properly protect ourselves. Right now, our hospital is strained by short staffing. We are unable to retain nurses, and we’re ...

Altoona grad on front lines of virus fight

Like lots of boys, Eliot Fagley had dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. “I loved baseball. I played Little League, Teener league, and played in high school and at Juniata College and the Federation. I was all over the place: I started at shortstop, did a lot of pitching and ...

AASD to discuss school model

The Altoona Area School Board will hold a special voting meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss COVID-19 and school attendance model. The meeting will be streamed on AASD YouTube Live from the junior high school libtary. Any Altoona resident wishing to address the board should submit his/her name, address, phone number and the comment or question to the board secretary’s office at 814-946-8206 by 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting. A return phone call will oc­­­­cur between 6:15 and 6:35 p.m. depending on the number of requests received.