April 13, 2020 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf says the Pennsylvania labor department has started sending out expanded federal unemployment compensation payments provided by the coronavirus relief package approved by Congress. The measure temporarily provides an additional $600 per week and makes self-employed, independent contractors and gig workers eligible for benefits. It also extends unemployment compensation benefits for an additional 13 weeks. The federal benefits are in addition to Pennsylvania’s regular unemployment benefit, which is about half of a person’s full-time weekly income up to $572 per week for 26 weeks.
April 13, 2020 4:03 am
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – An undisclosed number of residents at a West Virginia University dormitory complex have been ordered to self-quarantine after someone living there tested positive for the new coronavirus. The university says the Monongalia County health department notified WVU of the positive test Sunday. The individual has been isolated, and residents of the Evansdale Residential Complex must quarantine until they are tested starting Monday and the results are known. Employees of the complex also must be tested. WVU has been closed since March 20 and has prohibited students from returning to campus from spring break. The school has shifted almost all instruction online.
April 13, 2020 2:51 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI)– Two residents at Concordia at the Orchard have died after testing positive for coronavirus. The facility is a personal care home in Butler County. Additionally, two residents at a South Hills senior center have tested positive. The two patients live at Friendship Village of South Hills. One resident is in isolation and the other is being treated at a hospital.
April 13, 2020 2:33 am
DONORA, Pa. – A Donora man has become the first known fatality of a Washington County resident due to complications of COVID-19. Devin Taquino, 47 passed away at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh on Friday. According to a GoFundMe page set up in his honor, Taquino was dealing with what he thought was an intestinal issue. Days later, symptoms of a cough began, and he went to get tested for the Coronavirus. The page says he was admitted to the hospital March 25 and placed on a ventilator March 29. His condition worsened and he died. The fundraising page says his family only spoke with him on the phone a limited amount of times before he died. No visitors were allowed to see him because of the pandemic. According to his obituary, Taquino leaves behind his wife Becky and his children Jonathon, Kristofer and Madyline, as well as a brother Rob who lives in New York. Funeral proceedings are limited to immediate family due to health concerns.
April 12, 2020 8:36 am
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World plans to stop paying wages to 43,000 workers in about a week while allowing them to keep their benefits for up to a year in what is the largest wave of furloughs since the theme park resort closed in mid-March because of the new coronavirus spread. Workers will be able to keep their medical, dental and life insurance benefits for the length of the furlough period, or up to a year. Seniority and wage rates will remain unchanged for the workers whose furloughs start April 19, according to a statement from the Service Trades Council, the coalition of unions representing the Disney World workers. About 200 workers will remain on the job performing “essential duties” during the closure, and they will be offered positions based on seniority, the union said. The agreement with the Service Trades Council marked the largest group of workers at Disney World to come to terms on furloughs with the company during the outbreak. With 77,000 workers, Disney World is the largest single-site group of workers in the nation.
April 12, 2020 8:34 am
NEW YORK (AP) — As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can. The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients. The evolving treatments highlight the fact that doctors are still learning the best way to manage a virus that emerged only months ago. They are relying on anecdotal, real-time data amid a crush of patients and shortages of basic supplies. Mechanical ventilators push oxygen into patients whose lungs are failing. Using the machines involves sedating a patient and sticking a tube into the throat. Deaths in such sick patients are common, no matter the reason they need the breathing help.
April 12, 2020 8:03 am
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Joe Biden has won the Alaska Democrats’ party-run presidential primary, beating Sen. Bernie Sanders days after Sanders suspended his campaign. Biden beat Sanders Saturday 55.3% to 44.7%. A total of 19,759 votes were cast. Biden gets 11 delegates and Sanders gets 4. Sanders would have won more delegates but after ending his bid for the nomination last week, Sanders is no longer eligible to win delegates based on the statewide vote in primaries and caucuses, according to Democratic National Committee rules. Sanders is, however, still eligible to win delegates based on vote totals in individual congressional districts, which is why the AP allocated four delegate to Sanders in Alaska. Overall, Biden has 1,228 delegates and Sanders has 918, according to the count by The Associated Press
April 12, 2020 7:58 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis and Christians around the world marked a solitary Easter Sunday, forced to celebrate the most joyful day in the liturgical calendar amid the sorrowful reminders of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Families who normally would attend morning Mass in their Easter best and later join friends for celebratory lunches hunkered down at home. Police checkpoints and closed churches around the globe forced the faithful to watch Easter services online or on TV. A few lucky Romans participated from their balconies overlooking Santa Emerenziana church in the northern Trieste neighborhood, where the priest celebrated a rooftop open-air Mass. At the Vatican, Francis processed into a largely empty St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass, celebrated before a handful of token faithful sitting one per pew and with the choir’s “Kyrie” hymn echoing off the bare marble floors. Normally, St. Peter’s Square would be awash in fresh flowers for Easter, with tulips and orchids decorating the piazza’s promenade in a riot of color to underscore Easter’s message of life and rebirth following Christ’s crucifixion. Francis instead celebrated Mass inside the basilica, decorated with only a few potted palms and white hydrangeas. Rather than appearing on the basilica loggia to impart his blessing, Francis was to speak in front of the tomb of St. Peter, underscoring the solitude confronting all of humanity amid lockdown orders and quarantines to prevent further contagion. It was a scene repeated around the world, with churches either closed or, for the few still open for Mass, forcing the faithful to practice social distancing. In South Korea, where one outbreak was tied to a church sect, services were largely held online.
April 12, 2020 4:04 am
HARRISBURG (WPXI) — Pennsylvania residents collecting unemployment can expect to see an extra $600 per week starting with their next payment. Governor Tom Wolf announced Friday that this extra money, which was included as part of the CARES Act, the federal COVID-19 stimulus bill, will begin being disbursed early next week. A release from the governor’s office included the reminder if you have federal tax taken out of your regular unemployment check that money will also be withheld from these payments. In the same release, it was announced that the state is building a new system for people who are self-employed, contractors or gig workers to file for unemployment assistance. This system is expected to be online within the next two weeks. This is because the relief bill requires these claims and payments be tracked separately from traditional unemployment.
April 12, 2020 4:02 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — The Port Authority has announced that another employee, the fourth so far, has tested positive for coronavirus. According to a release, the employee was a driver who worked out of the East Liberty garage. The employee’s last shift was early in the morning on April 9. “After the employee reported they had tested positive for COVID-19, Port Authority mobilized a maintenance crew to perform a deep cleaning of the East Liberty garage and the buses the employee would have been in contact with,” the release said.
