Coronavirus category, Page 34
Expiring covid-19 waivers could make Pa. health-care staffing shortages worse
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Regulatory waivers established last year to help hospitals and health-care workers fight covid-19 will expire this month, and those...
Hallam, Bennett to introduce mask requirement proposal to Allegheny County Council
People would be required to wear masks at any indoor gathering and at outdoor gatherings of more than 250 people under legislation that will be introduced at Tuesday’s Allegheny County Council meeting. The ordinance is sponsored by council members Bethany Hallam and Olivia Bennett. Under the legislation, those who fail...
Covid vaccine for ages 5-11 could be ready for fall, early winter: reports
The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Pfizer board member said Sunday that a covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 could be ready as soon as Halloween. Appearing on CBS News “Face the Nation,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said that Pfizer expects to have...
School starts for 1 million NYC kids amid new vaccine rules
NEW YORK — About a million New York City public school students went back to school Monday in the nation’s largest experiment of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The start of the school year coincides with several milestones in the city’s pandemic recovery that hinge on vaccine mandates. Nearly...
Boris Johnson set to reveal U.K.’s road map to avoid more lockdowns
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce how his government plans to control the coronavirus during the fall and winter — hoping vaccinations, rather than restrictions, will keep covid-19 in check. At a news conference on Tuesday, Johnson is expected to say that mask-wearing, work-from-home advice...
West Virginia sets 2 daily records for positive coronavirus cases
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia set two daily records in the past week for positive coronavirus cases as the pandemic continues to ravage the state. Thursday’s total of confirmed cases was a record 1,738, only to be broken by Saturday’s total of 1,821, according to state health data. The previous...
Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson: Federal mandates fuel resistance to vaccinations
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that that federal vaccination mandates announced by President Joe Biden last week hurt efforts to overcome the public’s resistance to taking the covid-19 vaccine. The Republican governor has been notable in working to persuade reluctant Arkansas residents to be vaccinated against...
Senators call for transparency in nursing home staff vaccination reports
A pair of U.S. senators say the Biden administration must do more to provide families with easily accessible information on covid-19 vaccination rates among nursing home staff and residents. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Senate Finance chair, and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, D-Scranton, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, want the...
Biden’s vaccine rules ignite instant, hot GOP opposition
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republican leaders threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that have festered since the onset of...
CDC finds unvaccinated 11 times more likely to die of covid
New U.S. studies released Friday show the covid-19 vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalizations and death even as the extra-contagious delta variant swept the country. One study tracked over 600,000 covid-19 cases in 13 states from April through mid-July. As delta surged in early summer, those who were unvaccinated were...
Western Pa. companies scramble to process Biden’s covid vaccine mandate
A day after it was announced, some of Western Pennsylvania’s largest employers were still working out plans to comply with President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees. Most regional companies contacted on Friday said they were still going through the comprehensive plan announced Thursday evening....
FDA official hopeful younger kids can get shots this year
The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief said Friday the agency will rapidly evaluate covid-19 vaccinations for younger children as soon as it gets the needed data — and won’t cut corners. Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press he is “very, very hopeful” that vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds...
Court: DeSantis ban on school mask mandates back in force
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The on-again, off-again ban imposed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to prevent mandating masks for Florida school students amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is back in force. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled Friday that a Tallahassee judge should not have lifted an automatic stay...
Greece approves tough penalties for bogus covid certificates
ATHENS, Greece — Greece has introduced tough penalties for the issuing of fake covid-19 vaccination certificates after a worker at a state vaccination center was suspended for allegedly helping several dozen people acquire bogus documents. Health Minister Thanos Plevris said Friday that parliament has approved a legislative amendment to impose...
What families should know as pediatric covid cases climb in Pennsylvania
As covid-19 cases among kids continue to climb, one Pittsburgh doctor said that, while it’s good to keep precautions in mind, it’s also important to keep kids in school, even if they’re too young to be vaccinated. Covid-19 cases have been once again rising, fueled by the highly contagious delta...
Los Angeles to require vaccine for all students 12 and olderVideo
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles board of education voted Thursday to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend in-person classes in the nation’s second-largest school district. The move makes Los Angeles by far the largest of a very small number of districts with...
Biden moves to require vaccines for 100 million AmericansVideo
WASHINGTON — In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase covid-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant. Speaking at the White House, Biden sharply criticized...
Can kids get ‘long covid’ after coronavirus infections?
Can kids get “long covid” after coronavirus infections? Yes, but studies indicate they’re less likely than adults to be affected by symptoms that persist, recur or begin a month or more after infection. Estimates vary on how often the symptoms known as long covid-19 occur in kids. A recently published...
AP source: Biden requiring federal workers to get covid shot
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday is toughening covid-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers and contractors, according to a person familiar with the plans, as he aims to boost vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery. Just...
Gov. Wolf, teachers say kids are cool with masks: ‘It feels like an adult problem’Video
PHILADELPHIA — Wearing masks all day isn’t a big deal for Brooke Vaught’s 375 students. They compliment each other on their cool choices — bright colors, Batman, funky designs — they put them on, and get down to the business of learning. “We haven’t had any issues,” said Vaught, principal...
Health director: Children 12 and under made up 12% of Allegheny County’s covid cases last month
Covid-19 cases among children too young to be vaccinated continued to rise last month in Allegheny County, officials said Wednesday. Doctors have long feared a rise in pediatric covid cases in conjunction with the start of school. That prompted the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American...
Some rural hospitals in West Virginia hit bed capacity as covid surgesVideo
CHARLESTON — Some hospitals in rural parts of West Virginia have reached their critical bed capacities as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to surge statewide, health officials said Wednesday. Health officials are pleading with the public to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits to allow hospitals to focus their resources on...
Covid surge in the U.S.: Summer of hope ends in gloom
WASHINGTON — The summer that was supposed to mark America’s independence from covid-19 is instead drawing to a close with the U.S. more firmly under the tyranny of the virus, with deaths per day back up to where they were last March. The delta variant is filling hospitals, sickening alarming...
Missouri doctor: ERs treating people who took ivermectin
ST. LOUIS — Several people have been treated in Missouri emergency rooms after taking the parasite drug ivermectin, even as experts warn of dangerous side effects and a lack of proof that it helps treat covid-19. Dr. Steven Brown told KMOV-TV that cases of ivermectin toxicity have occurred at Mercy...
Idaho hospitals begin rationing health care amid covid surge
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho public health leaders announced Tuesday that they activated “crisis standards of care” allowing health care rationing for the state’s northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare quietly enacted the move Monday and publicly...
