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Coronavirus category, Page 51

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Ohio offers shot at $1 million through covid vaccines
Get a covid vaccine. Win $1 million. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that the state will award five vaccinated adult residents $1 million as an incentive to get more people vaccinated. About half of Ohio’s 8.4 million adults have at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccination. Two weeks...
Mental health problems likely to outlast pandemic
Mental health problems are likely to outlast the covid-19 pandemic that helped spawn them, university researchers said. “There is a huge wave of mental health struggles here, and it’s likely to be sustained,” Sheri Madigan of the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada said. Madigan was one of three university researchers...
Nurses, health care workers hold vigil to honor covid-19 victims and call for change
Nurses and health professionals from across the Poconos gathered together to remember those lives lost to the pandemic, and to call for action to prevent the loss of even more patients in the future on Tuesday afternoon. As part of Nurses Week 2021, a vigil for patient safety honoring the...
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine: Coronavirus health orders to end June 2 
COLUMBUS — Republican Gov. Mike DeWine says Ohio’s mask mandate and most other coronavirus-related state orders will end on June 2, allowing three weeks for more people to get vaccinated before then. He said Wednesday that applies to all of the state’s covid-19 orders — such as distancing in restaurants...
Allegheny County entering ‘new phase’ of the pandemic, officials say
Allegheny County officials on Wednesday said the region soon will move into a new phase of the covid-19 pandemic, as infection levels drop and the state braces for loosened restrictions next week. “We’re going to be following the governor’s guidelines where they are,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said at...
U.S. advisers endorse Pfizer covid shot for kids 12 and up 
U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesday, just as expected new guidelines say it’s OK for people of any age to get the shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and...
Schools ditch student mask requirements in growing numbers 
As a lengthy, bitter fight over mask requirements for students neared its conclusion, the chairperson of a Florida school board announced that she would agree to lift a mandate that had been in place since September even though she preferred leaving it in place until the end of the academic...
Taming the covid virus: U.S. deaths hit lowest level in 10 months
Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. have tumbled to an average of around 600 per day — the lowest level in 10 months — with the number of lives lost dropping to single digits in well over half the states and hitting zero on some days. Confirmed infections, meanwhile, have fallen...
Allegheny County nears 100,000 covid cases, but at slower pace than rest of year
As Allegheny County draws nearer to reaching the 100,000 mark for covid-19 cases, it’s doing so at a slower pace in May than it has the rest of the year. The Allegheny County Health Department reported 183 additional cases on Wednesday, with the county’s total reaching 99,567. For May, the...
U.K.’s Johnson backs public inquiry into handling of pandemic
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that an independent public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic will be held next year. He told lawmakers Wednesday that the inquiry will have wide-ranging statutory powers and that the government has a responsibility to learn lessons from the...
Sen. Susan Collins grills CDC Director Rochelle Walensky over covid transmission guidelines 
For Sen. Susan Collins, it was more than just a numbers game. Collins, the Republican senior senator from Maine, questioned CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday during a Senate Health Committee about a New York Times newsletter that said a statistic in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline...
Wolf: Indoor, outdoor event spaces in Pa. can increase capacity next week
Pennsylvania officials will increase capacity limits for indoor and outdoor event spaces Monday, though neither type can operate at full capacity yet. Gov. Tom Wolf said in a release Tuesday that occupancy limits for indoor events can increase to 50% and capacity for outdoor events can increase to 75% of...
Pa. covid case average drops to October level
The start of May has seen covid case numbers decline in Pennsylvania. With the declining figures, a key statistic has also dropped to a level it hadn’t been since October. Cases Pennsylvania reported 2,385 additional covid cases (1,669 confirmed, 716 probable) to its total Tuesday, according to the state Department...
Austrian convicted of intentionally giving ex-wife covid
BERLIN — A man in Austria has been convicted of intentionally infecting his ex-wife with the coronavirus by coughing at her. A spokesman for the Linz regional court said Tuesday that the 63-year-old was given a nine-month sentence, suspended for three years. Judges had convicted the man Monday of attempted...
Medicare requires nursing homes to report covid vaccinations
WASHINGTON — Medicare will require nursing homes to report covid-19 vaccination rates for residents and staff, the government said Tuesday. Officials hope to nudge facilities to keep giving shots as the worst ravages of the pandemic ease, but the danger of a rebound still lurks. “We’re hoping to drive increased...
Study finds 8 of 10 hospitalized covid patients have neurological symptoms
Neurological symptoms are frighteningly common among hospitalized covid-19 patients, and the symptoms are associated with a greater risk of death, a new study shows. A paper published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open outlines a project studying patients from around the globe. Scientists, including several at the University...
McDonald’s coffee cups will promote covid-19 vaccine awareness
McDonald’s restaurants have partnered with the Biden administration to promote awareness of the covid-19 vaccine. This summer, customers will see McCafé cups and McDelivery seal stickers that feature the national “We Can Do This” campaign created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the website, vaccines.gov. McDonald’s...
NIH vaccine designer takes coronavirus research to Harvard
The U.S. government scientist who helped design one of the first COVID-19 vaccines and then tackled skepticism of the shots in communities of color is moving to Harvard in June. Kizzmekia Corbett of the National Institutes of Health will take her research into next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses to the Harvard...
Poll: Most in U.S. who remain unvaccinated need convincing
Fewer Americans are reluctant to get a covid-19 vaccine than just a few months ago, but questions about side effects and how the shots were tested still hold some back, according to a new poll that highlights the challenges at a pivotal moment in the U.S. vaccination campaign. Just 11%...
Pfizer head Albert Bourla writing book about covid vaccine
NEW YORK — Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla can now tell the incredible story. Bourla has a deal with Harper Business for what the publisher is calling “an exclusive, first-hand, behind-the-scenes story” of how the drugmaker managed to develop an effective vaccine against covid-19 in a remarkably short...
Pfizer covid-19 shot expanded to U.S. children as young as 12 
Covid-19 vaccines finally are headed for more kids as U.S. regulators on Monday expanded use of Pfizer’s shot to those as young as 12, sparking a race to protect middle and high school students before they head back to class in the fall. Shots could begin as soon as a...
Republicans in Maine eye 5-year mandatory covid-19 shot ban
PORTLAND, Maine — A proposal from a group of Maine Republicans to ban mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for five years is up for consideration by a legislative committee this week. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Tracy Quint of Hodgdon, have based their proposal in part on the theory that coronavirus vaccines...
Confidence grows that covid-19 vaccines hold their own against variants
Confidence is growing that covid-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. are holding their own against the coronavirus variants now in circulation. “Everything we’ve seen with the variants should provide marked reassurance, as far as the protection that is afforded by vaccines — particularly the vaccines that we have...
State posts lowest number of new covid cases in 7 months
Not since early October has the daily covid case report for Pennsylvania been so low. New case numbers were down across the state, with Allegheny and Westmoreland counties posting their lowest numbers of the year — marks not seen for seven months. On Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health posted...
Cautious cuddling? England to OK hugs as lockdown eases
LONDON — In England, it’s going to be time to hug again. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to give the go-ahead for that much-missed human contact when he announces the next round of lockdown easing later Monday in the wake of a sharp fall in new coronavirus infections....


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