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COVID-19

Bedford court worker tests positive for COVID-19

The Bedford County Court administration has announced that a court employee tested positive for COVID-19. The employee last worked in court offices on Oct. 2 and as required, adhered to health and safety guidelines including the use of personal protective equipment and social distancing. At this time, there is no indication the public was exposed to the affected employee, according to a news release. Court administration notified the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania ...

Europe tightens rules as virus surges

GENEVA (AP) — Governments across Europe are ratcheting up restrictions to try to beat back a resurgence of the coronavirus that has sent new confirmed infections on the continent to their highest weekly level since the start of the pandemic. The World Health Organization said Tuesday there ...

State eases rent relief program rules

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania is extending the application deadline and changing the rules of a key rent and mortgage relief program in an effort to boost participation by landlords and keep more people in their homes during the pandemic, the governor announced Tuesday. The state is using $175 million of its federal coronavirus relief money to provide rental assistance to eligible tenants and mortgage relief to homeowners, but officials say the program has not been working as well as intended. Through the end of September, the program has paid out $9.7 million on behalf of 5,686 ...

GOP slates revote on COVID-19 relief plan

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he’s scheduling a procedural vote on a GOP COVID-19 relief bill next week, saying aid to hard-hit businesses shouldn’t be held up by gridlock involving other aid proposals. The Kentucky Republican says the first item of Senate business when the chamber returns next Monday will be a procedural vote on a scaled-back aid bill. Democrats filibustered a GOP-drafted aid bill last month and recent talks on a larger deal between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fell apart this ...

Virus puts squeeze on landlords

NEW YORK (AP) — When it comes to sympathetic figures, landlords aren’t exactly at the top of the list. But they, too, have fallen on hard times, demonstrating how the coronavirus outbreak spares almost no one. Take Shad Elia, who owns 24 single-family apartment units in the Boston area. ...

State’s coronavirus cases continue to climb

On Friday, for the second day in a row, the state Department of Health reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases since April 30. There were 1,380, four more than Thursday and the third consecutive day in which cases exceeded 1,300. On April 30, the DoH reported 1,397 positives — a number exceeded several times that month, including April 9, when the department reported its so-far highest ever number, 1,989. The number of deaths, however, remains relatively modest recently — with nine on Friday. The death toll went as high as 554 on May 5 — although high counts ...