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COVID-19

Court tosses mask mandate

HARRISBURG — An order by Pennsylvania’s acting health secretary that requires masks inside K-12 schools and child care facilities was thrown out Wednesday by a state court that said she lacked the authority. The Wolf administration put the decision on hold by filing an immediate appeal. Commonwealth Court sided 4-1 with the ranking Republican in the state Senate and others who sued to challenge the masking order that took effect in early September as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Within hours of the decision, it was put on hold when Health Department lawyers filed an ...

Bellwood-Antis: Parents may get say on masks

BELLWOOD — Parents in the Bellwood-Antis School District soon may again have a say on whether their children wear masks in school. Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that on Jan. 17 he expects to turn decisions about masking over to local school officials. Wolf said Pennsylvania school districts will be allowed to modify or end the mask mandate for K-12 students saying it is “time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting.” The Wolf administration imposed a statewide mandate in early September amid a surge in infections and hospitalizations from the highly ...

County COVID cases dipping

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County may be on the verge of some relief after weeks of watching its COVID-19 cases climb. Blair County Director of Public Safety Mark Taylor told commissioners Tuesday that the county remains in the high transmission rate of the ongoing pandemic. But the number of new cases, he said, is “trending down a little bit,” along with the number of hospitalized patients and those on ventilators. Blair County’s hospitalizations due to COVID-19, which recently climbed as high as 70, is down slightly, he said. The number of hospitalized patients on ventilators, ...

UPMC stresses vaccine safety

Parents should not fear getting their young children vaccinated for COVID-19, and neither should pregnant women, according to UPMC experts said Friday. The risk for both the young children authorized this week to receive the Pfizer shot — and for previously authorized pregnant women — comes from failing to be vaccinated, according to Tami Minnier, UPMC’s chief quality officer; Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, president of UPMC Children’s Community Pediatrics; and Dr. Richard Beigi, president of UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital. The trials on which the Food and Drug Administration based ...

Blair posts most new COVID cases

All six local counties remain in the high transmission category for COVID-19 this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blair County had the most new cases and the highest number of new cases per 100,000 residents — the incidence rate — while Bedford County had the highest test positivity and lowest vaccination rate. There were 56 total deaths from COVID among the six local counties, with Cambria having the most deaths and Blair second most. Centre County had the lowest incidence rate, the fewest deaths and the highest vaccination rate. The CDC ...

US mandates vaccines or tests for larger companies

Tens of millions of Americans who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or get tested for the virus weekly under government rules issued Thursday. The new requirements are the Biden administration’s boldest move yet to persuade reluctant Americans to finally get a vaccine that has been widely available for months — or face financial consequences. If successful, administration officials believe it will go a long way toward ending a pandemic that has killed more than 750,000 Americans. First previewed by President ...