Coronavirus category, Page 49
Biden asks U.S. intelligence officials to investigate covid-19 origin
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic, including the unlikely possibility that the origins of the virus trace to a Chinese lab. After months of minimizing the possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden...
Allegheny County reports 5th straight day of covid cases under 100
Allegheny County on Wednesday reported its fifth straight day of double-digit covid cases — a streak the county hasn’t seen since October. According to the Allegheny County Health Department, there were 72 additional cases reported to raise the county’s total to 101,056. Totals for the previous four days were 62,...
UPMC touts antibody treatment for covid-19
People who test positive for covid-19 should ask their health care providers about receiving monoclonal antibody treatment as soon as they are diagnosed, UPMC doctors said Wednesday. “Earlier is better. It is important for high-risk patients,” said Dr. Meredith Chuk, allocation, distribution and administration lead for the federal department of...
White House adviser: ‘Get to bottom’ of coronavirus origins
WASHINGTON — White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt says “we need to get to the bottom” of the origins of the pandemic pathogen and the World Health Organization and China need to do more to provide definitive answers for the global community. The precise origin of the virus remains undetermined...
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp: Public agencies can’t require covid-19 vaccine proof
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp says public agencies in Georgia can’t require people to prove they have been vaccinated against covid-19, a step his administration says ultimately means no agency can require anyone to receive the vaccination. The Republican governor issued an executive order Tuesday banning vaccine passports and saying...
After citing privacy law, Pa. backtracks and discloses wasted vaccine details
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — After refusing to release details about wasted coronavirus vaccine, citing a decades-old disease prevention law, the Wolf administration has...
Pa. has 3rd day with new covid cases under 1,000, figures not seen since September
Pennsylvania had another record day in terms of covid cases Tuesday. With the amount of new cases reported this week, the state amassed a three-day case total not seen since late September. Cases The state saw its third consecutive day of less than 1,000 new covid cases, according to state...
Moderna says its covid shot works in kids as young as 12
Moderna said Tuesday its covid-19 vaccine strongly protects kids as young as 12, a step that could put the shot on track to become the second option for that age group in the U.S. With global vaccine supplies still tight, much of the world is struggling to vaccinate adults in...
EU leaders agree to donate 100 million doses of vaccines
BRUSSELS — EU leaders agreed Tuesday to donate at least 100 million doses of covid-19 vaccines to poorer nations by the end of the year as supplies steadily rise across Europe. Gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit, the 27 leaders backed a text in which they pledge to continue...
State Department warns against all travel to Japan as Olympics loom
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials and the State Department on Monday warned Americans against travel to Japan because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, which is preparing to host the Olympics in just two months. The twin alerts don’t ban U.S. citizens from visiting the country, but...
In-person visits set to resume at Westmoreland prison as inmate vaccinations begin
In-person visits with inmates at the Westmoreland County Prison will resume in June as officials ease restrictions enacted last year during the coronavirus pandemic. Inmates have been limited to video visits with friends and family as the coronavirus surged through the community and inside the Hempfield lockup. Warden Bryan Kline...
Las Vegas officials hold pop-up vaccine clinic at strip club
Wearing a French maid-inspired lingerie costume and high heels, dancer JoJo Hamner waited patiently to get her covid-19 vaccine in a line that snaked past a glittery hostess stand under a red-light chandelier. When it was her turn, Hamner sat in a chair and held onto a small feather duster...
Pennsylvania inches near Gov. Wolf’s 70% vaccination target for lifting mask mandate
Gov. Tom Wolf’s goal of having 70% of adult Pennsylvanians fully vaccinated against covid-19 may well be within reach in a month’s time. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvania is just a half a percentage point shy of hitting 70% of adults with at...
NYC mayor: Public schools will be all in person this fall
New York City schools will be all in person this fall with no remote options, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. “We can’t have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back, sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” The roughly 1 million...
Covid testing’s value shrinks as vaccines beat back virus
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received...
As covid cases decline, only 1 Pa. county reports more than 100 cases
New covid case numbers continue to decline in Pennsylvania, as well as in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. On Saturday, only one county in the state reported triple-digit cases. Cases The state reported 1,658 additional covid cases Saturday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, only one...
Covid cases rise slightly in Pennsylvania as hospitalizations drop
Pennsylvania recorded a slight rise in covid-19 cases while the number of people hospitalized with the illness continued its steady drop. The state on Friday added 1,823 cases, the most in the past six days, according to data from the state Department of Health. Those cases helped raise the seven-day...
Maryland to offer covid-19 vaccine lottery incentive with $2 million in cash prizes
Forty daily drawings for $40,000 each and a $400,000 Fourth of July jackpot. Get at least one jab, and you’ve got a shot. Maryland’s latest effort to encourage people to get vaccinated will shower cash — a total of $2 million — on top of protection against covid-19 for those...
Pa. health officials celebrate federal pharmacy partnership’s progress in vaccinations
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Alison Beam on Thursday thanked federal pharmacy partners for their help distributing covid vaccine to residents across the state and said the collaboration would continue for the time being. As of May 20, 50% of Pennsylvania’s adult population has been fully vaccinated, and more than 55% of...
Gov. Tom Wolf extends covid-19 disaster declaration, days after votes to curb his powers
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has signed a renewal of the state’s disaster order related to the coronavirus pandemic. The governor announced the renewal Thursday afternoon, just two days after voters approved two measures to curb his powers in disasters. The previous covid-19 disaster order expired Thursday. “Covid-19 vaccinations have increased...
Pennsylvania terminating vendor that mishandled virus data
Pennsylvania is firing a company that performed covid-19 contact tracing and exposed the private medical information of tens of thousands of residents, according to legislative Republicans who released a statement from the state Health Department on Thursday. Employees of Insight Global used unauthorized Google accounts — readily viewable online —...
Visitation resumes at 5 Pa. state prison facilities
The state Department of Corrections will slowly start phasing in-person visitation back in at five facilities, including SCI-Laurel Highlands, officials said this week. The decision to allow in-person visits at any particular facility is based upon vaccination rates, the percentage of cases among those incarcerated, and the amount of the...
Covid-19 vaccines don’t cause sudden hearing loss, study finds
When you administer tens of millions of doses of covid-19 vaccine, you’re bound to get reports of all kinds of side effects. That includes accounts of sudden hearing loss. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University treated some of the people whose hearing suffered in the wake of a covid-19 shot, and...
More than 50% of Pennsylvania adults fully vaccinated for covid
Pennsylvania passed a milestone with more than 50% of adults considered fully vaccinated against covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 5,088,210 million adults — those 18 and older — who are considered fully vaccinated. That’s 50.1% of the adult population. Pennsylvania’s mask mandate can...
Nervous workers struggle to adjust to new mask policies
NEW YORK — An abrupt relaxation of mask policies has left workers at some retail and grocery stores reeling as they try to sort out what the new environment means for their own safety and relationship with customers. Kroger, the country’s largest grocery chain, became one of the latest to...
