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COVID-19

Wolf vetoes school sports bill; override attempt expected

Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday vetoed a bill that would give school districts the sole ability to make decisions on sports, including whether and how many spectators to allow, and lawmakers in the GOP-controlled General Assembly said they would try to override it. The Wolf administration’s limits on gatherings of 25 people indoors and 250 people outdoors currently apply to youth sports, capping attendance at football games and other school sporting events and extracurricular activities. The vetoed legislation sought to empower schools to make their own rules about the number of ...

Pennsylvania launches new virus exposure notification app

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania's new coronavirus exposure-notification app is now available on app stores. The release of the app Tuesday is part of Pennsylvania's effort to more quickly break chains of transmission by using the new technology to notify people who may have been exposed. ...

Anti-fraud efforts in place in unemployment cases

Those who legitimately need unemployment compensation are getting hurt by fraudulent claimants, state labor officials said. The state Department of Labor & Industry said Monday due to an alarming spike in suspicious applications for unemployment benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, additional anti-fraud and identity verification measures will be put in place. “Payments for new applicants are being temporarily delayed and the department will provide more information as the enhancement continues,” said Jerry Oleksiak, department secretary. There is ...

Jobless rate drops statewide

Unemployment rates across the state dropped by 2 percentage points, said Jerry Oleksiak, secretary of the state Department of Labor and Industry in a briefing with reporters on Monday. To assist those without jobs, Oleksiak said the process benefits due the staff has increased to 1,640 employees from as low as 775 in mid-March. Some two million Pennsylvanians have received assistance through email, live chat, telephone or automation, he said. Since March 15, $28 billion has been paid in unemployment compensation, he said. That is $16 billion in federal pandemic compensation or ...

CDC drops controversial testing advice that caused backlash

NEW YORK — U.S. health officials on Friday dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and said anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language posted last month that said people didn’t need to get tested if they didn’t feel sick. That change had set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn’t fathom why the nation’s top public health agency would say such a thing amid the pandemic. It was “not ...