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COVID-19

Clinton County government to require masks of all visitors

LOCK HAVEN — Beginning this Monday, Sept. 13, at 8 a.m., all Clinton County government buildings will require all guests, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask inside buildings. This policy change comes as a result of increased cases within the county, poor countywide vaccination rates, and the threat of COVID-19 variants, the commissioners announced. In addition to the required masking for all guests, the county will also continue to require non-vaccinated employees to wear a mask when moving about in buildings or meeting with the public. The updated policy will also ...

Biden’s vaccine rules ignite instant, hot GOP opposition

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to require millions of U.S. workers to vaccinate against the coronavirus is running into a wall of resistance from Republicans threatening everything from lawsuits to civil disobedience, plunging the country deeper into culture wars that ...

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 will be underway by year’s end. Maybe sooner: One company, Pfizer, is expected to turn over its study results by the end of September, and Marks say the agency hopefully could analyze them “in a matter of weeks.” In the U.S., anyone 12 and older is eligible for ...

Sweeping new vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans

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 emotionally laid into the roughly 80 million eligible Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us,” he said, all but biting off his words. The ...

COVID cases increase in younger population

“Young children are at a higher risk for becoming infected now than at any other time during the pandemic,” according to Dr. John Williams, chief of pediatric infectious diseases, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “Unlike what many have heard, children do get sick with COVID, and they can transmit the virus to family, friends and other members of the community,” Williams said. Williams noted that UPMC Children’s Hospital, Pittsburgh, is seeing an increase in children being treated for COVID-19 at clinics and emergency rooms, some leading to hospitalizations. ...

In COVID-slammed Idaho, schools risk buckling hospitals

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — When Idaho public health officials announced this week that northern hospitals were so crowded with coronavirus patients that they would be allowed to ration health care, roughly 11,000 kids in Coeur d’Alene were packing lunches, climbing on buses or grabbing backpacks ...