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COVID-19

Students to return to Montoursville schools full-time

The Montoursville Area School Board approved the return to a five-day, in-person schedule. The action was taken at a special meeting Thursday night. In a statement to parents, Christina Bason, district superintendent, said that elementary will return on Oct. 12 and middle and high school students will resume a five-day schedule on Oct. 19. Bason went on to say that, although the hybrid schedule has been eliminated at this time, “should the Department of Health determine that the COVID numbers in Lycoming County warrant a label of ‘significant’ risk, the district will quickly ...

Doctors push preventative care for flu season

To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and influenza, doctors with UPMC said Tuesday in a conference with reporters the best methods would be to continue to wear facial coverings, social distance, wash hands or sanitize them and avoid large crowds, especially indoors. “This is the current ...

Vaccine for COVID-19 not likely before end of year

Calling it “our generation’s moon shot,” medical experts with UPMC Pittsburgh Tuesday said a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 before the end of the year would not likely be discovered and distributed. “It is our generation’s moon shot,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology for UPMC. Snyder was joined in a news conference by Drs. Donald Yealy, senior medical director and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh, and David A. Nace, chief medical officer, UPMC Senior ...

Disaster declaration renewed in face of rising cases

Lycoming County commissioners no sooner renewed the county’s Declaration of Disaster Emergency before launching into a discussion about the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic. The declaration allows the county to apply for emergency funding connected to the coronavirus for another 90 days. Commissioner Rick Mirabito reminded the public that COVID-19 is a serious issue and that the county continues to see a rise in coronavirus cases, including at a local nursing care and rehabilitation facility. He pointed to Pennsylvania College of Technology where there have been 56 cases, ...

Jersey Shore to eliminate hybrid schooling option

JERSEY SHORE — When the second marking period begins Nov. 2, students in the Jersey Shore Area School District will have just two instruction options available as the board approved eliminating the hybrid model of instruction at their meeting Monday night. Instruction for students K-12 will only be available in person or totally remote in the district’s online program, JSOL. According to Dr. Brian Ulmer, district superintendent, the recommendation to eliminate the hybrid option was made due to declining enrollment in that program. He noted that at the Middle School level there had ...

Increased dining capacity not a big deal for local eateries

Gov. Wolf’s directive handed down earlier this month to allow restaurants to increase indoor dining capacity has drawn less than an outpouring of enthusiasm from local establishments. “There’s no real difference in business yet,” Zack Aulenbach, manager of Cracker Barrel, 260 S. ...