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COVID-19

NYC mandates vaccinations for public school teachers, staff

NEW YORK (AP) — All New York City public school teachers and other staffers will have to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, officials said Monday, ramping up pandemic protections as the nation’s largest school system prepares for classes to start next month. The city previously said teachers, like other city employees, would have to get the shots or get tested weekly for the virus. The new policy marks the first no-option vaccination mandate for a broad group of city workers in the nation’s most populous city, though Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that coaches and ...

WVa’s largest private employer issues worker vaccine mandate

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia University Health System, the state’s largest private employer, announced Monday that it will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 31 as COVID-19 cases continue to grow exponentially statewide. The mandate applies to workers at all of the WVU Health System’s hospitals and clinics in West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and staff working remotely at home or onsite. The health system includes 20 hospitals and five health institutes and has more than 1,000 medical staff and 15,000 ...

KCSD sends out ‘pandemic response’ plan

MILL HALL — With the first day of school a little more than a week away, Keystone Central School District superintendent Jacquelyn Martin sent out a reminder to parents, students and families on Friday to update them on the district’s “pandemic response” plan for the 2021-22 school year. Although nothing in the district’s health and safety plan has changed, the email served as a reminder about the specifics of the plan. The biggest question, of course, is about masks. And, as the email pointed out, masks are still optional — for now. The health and safety plan ...

Concerns arise over COVID-19 at Grange Fair, Penn State

CENTRE HALL — As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Centre County, there is some concern about two big events which will be taking place days apart. Today, the Centre County Grange Fair officially gets underway. Campers have been moving in throughout the week. When all is said and done, there will be nearly 1,000 tents and more than 1,000 motor homes at the fairgrounds in Centre Hall. Daily, thousands of people will descend on Centre Hall to attend the week-long event. Meanwhile, students have been moving into Penn State’s University Park campus throughout the week and even ...

Gulf Coast’s beloved ‘Redneck Riviera’ now a virus hotspot

GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out of critical care beds, its rooms full of unvaccinated people fighting for their lives. On maps that show virus “hot spots” in red, this part of the U.S. coast is glowing like a bad sunburn. And a summer of booming tourism that followed the lockdowns and travel restrictions of 2020 is making the ...

Record delta wave hits kids, raises fear as US schools open

The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, thought his frightened mother, Yessica Gonzalez. ...