Coronavirus in Pennsylvania

Allegheny County officials are urging local COVID-19 vaccine providers to inoculate frontline health care workers over those further down the state's prioritization list. County health department director Dr. Debra Bogen said providers should contact the county if they can’t find groups of phase 1A workers.

When a UPMC service coordinator received notification this month that it was her turn to get the COVID vaccine, she was surprised. 

The state health department has created a map that lists COVID-19 vaccine providers across Pennsylvania. Providers who currently offer vaccines and those that eventually will as the state’s roll out enters its later stages are included.

It is likely the new strain of the coronavirus that was first identified in the U.K. is already circulating in Allegheny County, according to the chair of the county’s board of health.

The Allegheny County Health Department announced a second clinic for COVID-19 vaccines Monday. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Monroeville will serve as a point of distribution in addition to the Health Department’s downtown location.

After weeks of record high coronavirus case numbers, the pandemic in Pennsylvania is finally starting to ebb — but the commonwealth isn’t out of the woods yet.

In Allegheny County and elsewhere, the end of 2020 brings worries that COVID-19 cases will rise due to holiday celebrations, but also hope that a new vaccine will finally curb the pandemic.

The pandemic upended life in countless ways, including the collective realization of just how important home is.

Additional restrictions that were imposed in Pennsylvania almost three weeks ago to combat the COVID-19 pandemic will expire as expected early next week, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday.

The coronavirus vaccine is coming to the Kane Community Living Centers, which have lost a total of 46 residents to COVID-19 this year.

A portable, pod-shaped device is helping nursing homes, dentist offices and others to protect patients and residents from the coronavirus. The Nanowave Air, developed by Cheswick, Pa.-based Dynamics, is reportedly the first device of its kind.

As health care workers and nursing home residents are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, officials are still finalizing the distribution plan for the so-called Phase 1B group. This next phase of vaccine distribution includes first responders, critical workers and those with pre-existing conditions that put them more at risk of severe illness from the coronavirus.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has rejected a bid to block one of Gov. Tom Wolf's latest orders to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus, a three-week shutdown of indoor dining at restaurants through Jan. 4, as Wolf went to court to sue restaurants defying the order.

State data shows that 299 Allegheny County residents have died from COVID-19 so far this month.

That means that one-third of the county’s total COVID fatalities since the start of the pandemic have occurred in December.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell for a seventh straight month in November, dipping below the national rate, as payrolls continued to rebound from pandemic-driven shutdowns, according to state figures released Friday.

More than 17,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to health care workers at Pennsylvania hospitals, the state health secretary said Monday, as hospitals remain stressed by coronavirus patient loads and a second vaccine from Moderna is expected to arrive this week.

Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday.

All 14 hospitals in Allegheny County that were slated to receive shipments of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech have gotten their deliveries--according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Allegheny County’s top public health official is telling residents to give the cold shoulder to businesses that refuse to comply with Pennsylvania’s new COVID-19 restrictions.

Pennsylvania’s two Senators say they support a new COVID-19 relief package that a bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled Monday. The plan would prioritize areas of agreement while leaving more contentious issues to be resolved later.

Pennsylvania will receive an initial shipment of more than 110,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the state Department of Health announced Monday as UPMC began giving the shots to its health workers.

Five UPMC employees were the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Pittsburgh Monday. UPMC received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine at 9:15 a.m. at Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville. The first shipment contained 975 doses; the state of Pennsylvania is slated to receive 100 shipments, equaling 97,500 doses total.

Pennsylvania may continue to enforce its mask mandate and perform contact tracing, a federal judge decided Friday, ruling against two families who claim the pandemic measures violate their constitutional rights.

Like most other states, Pennsylvania requires people to wear masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. The state also has a contact tracing program in which people who have been potentially exposed to the virus are identified and quarantined.

A growing body of research suggests there is no correlation between riding public transit and transmission of coronavirus, but case numbers among Port Authority of Allegheny County employees continue to rise.

A day before many high school winter sports competitions were set to begin in Pennsylvania, the state called time out. All high school sports activities have been prohibited as part of a three-week order also restricting indoor dining and most gatherings.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is widely expected to announce new statewide restrictions on Thursday amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic as he scheduled his first public appearance since his own COVID-19 diagnosis.

A group of Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives wants their adamantly maskless Republican colleagues to be sworn in next month after everyone else, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Digital signs around Norristown said it was 43 degrees, but with the wind it felt much colder in the small encampment by the banks of Stony Creek where Dottie and Mark Spillane have been staying.

Rumors have been circulating for nearly a week that new coronavirus mitigation restrictions in Pennsylavnia would be announced by Governor Tom Wolf. Instead, on Wednesday, Governor Wolf announced that he and members of his security team tested positive for the coronavirus.