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Coronavirus category, Page 62

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Now vaccinated, older adults emerge from covid hibernation
PORTLAND, Maine — Bill Griffin waited more than a year for this moment: Newly vaccinated, he embraced his 3-year-old granddaughter for the first time since the pandemic began. “She came running right over. I picked her up and gave her a hug. It was amazing,” the 70-year-old said after the...
Life during covid: Greensburg paramedic recounts virus toll
Editor’s note: This is an occasional series examining how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of members of our community. The life of a paramedic got a lot harder a year ago, and it hasn’t eased up yet. “It just causes a normal day to be four times as...
Westmoreland County reports most covid cases in 2021; Pa. sees most in months
Westmoreland County reported its most additional covid cases this year Saturday, according to state Department of Health data. The county reported 357 cases, the most since 466 were reported on Dec. 29. The seven-day case average on Saturday increased to 132, the highest that figure has been since Jan. 25....
Pitt virologist discusses vaccine hesitancy, variants, why we may never fully eradicate covid-19 
Paul Duprex doesn’t fault anyone who’s reluctant to get a covid-19 vaccine. As director of University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research, Duprex has been awed by the collaboration among academic institutions, pharmaceutical giants, public and private funders and scientists around the globe in the race to defeat the novel...
Wait over, visits at Westmoreland Manor to resume
After more than a year of meeting through windows or via video chats, Westmoreland Manor residents will have an opportunity to meet in person with family and friends starting Saturday. Officials announced Friday that outside visits for the nearly 300 nursing home residents at the county-owned facility in Hempfield will...
UPMC doctors recommend antibody treatment early for covid patients
UPMC officials on Friday came together to make a concerted push for monoclonal antibody treatment for covid-19, strongly encouraging covid-positive individuals who are most at risk for hospitalization and death to ask for the treatment. Dr. Erin McCreary, an infectious disease pharmacist, described monoclonal antibodies as “copies of antibodies that...
Former CDC chief suspects covid likely came from lab
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during much of the Trump administration, said in an interview aired Friday that he believes covid-19 likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, but he did not provide evidence to support the theory. Redfield’s personal opinion...
Some women have lymph node swelling under arm after covid vaccine
Lea Anne Ochs was dismayed when she received a call from UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital about a follow-up ultrasound from a mammogram. “My mammograms had always been normal,” said the 48-year-old from Economy Borough, Beaver County. “It was my routine mammogram. And there was no family history of breast cancer.” The...
Allegheny, Westmoreland report highest daily covid totals in more than 2 months
Allegheny and Westmoreland counties on Friday saw their highest totals of newly reported covid cases in more than two months. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Allegheny reported 586 additional coronavirus cases, its highest since 670 on Jan. 13. Westmoreland’s total of 166 is its most since 173 on...
Gov. Wolf hints that vaccination phases could fade in light of open eligibility goal
Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday indicated Pennsylvania’s phased approach to vaccinations could be fading as the administration sets its sights on President Biden’s goal of open eligibility by May 1. He said the vaccine landscape “changed a little bit” when the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine received emergency authorization. As...
UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital to host vaccine clinic for pregnant women
Pregnant women in the region will be able to get a covid vaccine next week at a clinic at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland. “Getting a vaccine as early as you can in the pregnancy is good,” said Dr. Richard Beigi, the hospital’s president. Beigi said the clinic, set up...
Vaccine eligibility expanded at Allegheny County sites
The Allegheny County Health Department once again is expanding vaccine eligibility at county-run sites, effective immediately, to everyone in Phase 1A. The department had been vaccinating people 65 and older until last Friday, when eligibility was expanded to include people 50-64 with certain medical conditions. This marks the second eligibility...
Pennsylvania passes 1 million covid cases
Pennsylvania passed 1 million covid cases on Thursday. The milestone comes as vaccinations continue amid rising cases statewide and stable cases closer to home in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,000,240 cases, a rise of 3,623 cases from Wednesday. The seven-day average of cases is...
Wolf administration refuses to release details of wasted covid vaccine doses
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 — The Wolf administration is refusing to disclose details of wasted coronavirus vaccine doses, including how many have been discarded...
AstraZeneca confirms strong vaccine protection after U.S. rift 
AstraZeneca insisted Wednesday that its covid-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed U.S. study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials. In a late-night press release, AstraZeneca said it had recalculated data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76%...
Allegheny County to launch new vaccine registration system next week 
Allegheny County will launch a new vaccine registration system next week, officials announced Wednesday. The system will allow residents to register for a covid-19 vaccine, receive notifications when they become eligible and prevent those who are ineligible from making appointments in the meantime. The system will reduce the number of...
West Virginia to target young people for vaccinations
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s coronavirus vaccination campaign will turn to young people to stem transmission rates after giving shots to most senior citizens. The new strategy to focus on shots for residents aged 16 to 29 comes after officials said they are seeing an increase in doses. “When you...
U.S. outlook improving as covid vaccinations rise, deaths fall
More than three months into the U.S. vaccination drive, many of the numbers paint an increasingly encouraging picture, with 70% of Americans 65 and older receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and covid-19 deaths dipping below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since November. Also,...
Allegheny County adds 498 covid cases, highest total since mid-January
Allegheny County on Wednesday added its most coronavirus cases since mid-January. The Allegheny County Health Department reported 498 additional cases, the highest since 516 were reported Jan. 17. It was also only the third time since the beginning of February that the county has surpassed 400 cases. Allegheny County had...
Covid variant identified on Pitt’s Oakland campus as cases spike
University of Pittsburgh officials confirmed at least one case of the U.K. covid-19 variant has cropped up on campus, something they believe will lead to an uptick in cases that have already spiked in recent days. “We confirmed that the U.K. variant … is present on the Pittsburgh campus,” the...
Brazil posts record single-day toll of 3,251 coronavirus deaths 
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil reported more than 3,000 covid-19 deaths in a single day for the first time Tuesday amid calls for the government and the new health minister to take action to stem the nation’s resurgence of coronavirus infections. In recent weeks, Latin America’s largest country has become...
Penn State recommends covid-19 testing students as cases continue to rise
As cases of covid-19 continue rising on Penn State’s campus, the university has again — “out of an abundance of caution” — recommended that all students in three more dorms get tested. Students living in Pollock’s Beaver Hall and the East’s Geary and Packer halls were urged Monday to either...
Chicago sees ‘worrying’ uptick in covid-19 cases
CHICAGO — Chicago experienced a significant spike in covid-19 cases in the last week, triggering fresh concerns Tuesday from the city’s top health officials. The average number of confirmed daily cases in the nation’s third-largest city was 350 Tuesday, up 23% from 285 the week before, according to city data....
More than 100,000 educators in Pa. vaccinated through state initiative
More than 100,000 educators have been vaccinated through a Pennsylvania initiative using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, state officials announced Tuesday. A total of 102,161 school teachers and staff have gotten the vaccine since the initiative got started across Pennsylvania. “Vaccinating more than 100,000 teachers and staff in less than...
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania see covid hospitalizations go up again
While progress had been made for covid hospitalizations in the past month, numbers appear to be going up again. Hospitalizations in the state and Allegheny County have been generally increasing over the past week, while Westmoreland County’s numbers tell a different story, according to state Department of Health data. Hospitalizations...


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