March 24, 2020 8:44 am
MADRID (AP) – The World Health Organization says infections and deaths globally from the new coronavirus are expected to increase “considerably” and is warning the outbreak is still at its early stages. The WHO says 85% of the new cases are being reported in Europe and the United States, and Spain registered a leap in both infections and deaths. A skating rink in a Madrid mall was converted into a makeshift morgue to store bodies until they could be buried or cremated. More than 387,000 people worldwide have been infected by the new coronavirus and more than 16,700 have died; more than 101,000 have recovered.
March 24, 2020 4:03 am
NEW DELHI (AP) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decreed a 21-day lockdown across the nation of 1.3 billion people to save it from the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement is setting off panic in many neighborhoods as people rush to markets to stock up on supplies. Modi says if India isn’t able to manage the next 21 days, the country could be set back by 21 years. India’s stay-at-home order puts nearly one-fifth of the world’s population under lockdown. Indian health officials have reported 469 active cases of the virus, and 10 deaths. Officials have repeatedly insisted there is no evidence yet of localized spread but have conducted relatively scant testing for the disease.
March 24, 2020 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top congressional and White House officials negotiating the nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package say they expect to reach a deal sometime Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer say they spoke by phone with President Donald Trump as they met late into the night at the Capitol. While the two sides have resolved many issues in the sweeping package, some disagreements remain. Washington has been straining to respond to the worsening coronavirus outbreak, and tempers in Congress have flared at times. Meantime, President Donald Trump is musing openly about letting a 15-day shutdown expire next Monday.
March 24, 2020 4:01 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California is scrambling to obtain protective gear for healthcare workers and first responders, reaching out worldwide and working with locals to ratchet up production as the coronavirus outbreak sweeps through the nation’s most populous state. Gov. Gavin Newsom says California is looking at ways of acquiring some 1 billion sets of gloves, along with hundreds of millions of gowns, surgical masks and face shields. California has seen nearly 2,200 cases of COVID-19 and 40 deaths. Newsom says an expected three-month surge of cases will require some 50,000 additional hospital beds.
March 24, 2020 4:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – An Associated Press review has found that a series of missteps at the nation’s top public health agency created a critical shortage of reliable tests for the coronavirus. Those stumbles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hobbled the federal response as the pandemic spread across the nation. President Donald Trump has assured Americans that “anyone who wants a test can get a test.” But more than two months after the first U.S. coronavirus case was confirmed, many people are still unable to get tested and it can take a week for test results to be returned.
March 24, 2020 3:58 am
BEIJING (AP) – Chinese authorities are lifting a lockdown in most of its virus-hit Hubei province. People who are cleared will be able to leave the province after midnight Tuesday. The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started, will remain locked down until April 8. China barred people from leaving or entering Wuhan starting Jan. 23 and expanded it to most of the province in succeeding days. The drastic steps came as a new coronavirus began spreading to the rest of China and overseas during the Lunar New Year, when many Chinese travel. Hubei has seen almost no new infections for more than a week.
March 24, 2020 3:55 am
Traffic Congestion in Peters Township is a concern for Peters Township Council. Township Manager Paul Lauer stated that the intersections of Valleybrook Road and Bebout Road and the intersection of Bebout, E. McMurray and Thompsonville are all are in the design phase by PennDot. Those projects are slated for completion in2023. Council also approved the first payment for the realignment of E. McMurray Road and Valleybrook Road. A portion of that payment is coming from a Green Light Go Grant awarded to the township. Council also suspended live audience comment in a cautionary move during the coronavirus social distancing practice. Audience comments are encouraged. They need to be sent to the township manager by traditional mail or email and council will be made aware of the resident’s concern.
March 24, 2020 2:11 am
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) announced Monday that all schools in the commonwealth will remain closed through at least April 6th as a result of the COVID-19 response efforts. The closure order could be extended beyond that time if necessary to save lives and stop the spread of the virus. When it’s determined that students can return to school, administrators, teachers and other staff will be given two days to prepare classrooms, set up cafeterias, schedule transportation and arrange other business operations. Students would return on the third day.Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera said his decision to close all schools for the additional period aligns with the governor’s stay-at-home directive for seven counties – Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Monroe, Montgomery and Philadelphia. Monday’s additional school closure will be for 14 days, beginning Tuesday, March 24th. Secretary Rivera also cancelled standardized testing for students in career and technical education (CTE) programs for the 2019-20 school year. These include exams from the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) and National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS). Last Thursday the department cancelled all PSSA testing and Keystone exams for the 2019-20 school year, as well as the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA).
March 23, 2020 3:21 pm
The Scripps National Spelling Bee won’t be held as scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning years of preparation by some of the country’s top spellers could go for naught. Scripps announced its decision Friday morning, citing recommendations against large gatherings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ongoing state of emergency in Maryland. The bee had been scheduled for the week of May 24 at a convention center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington. Scripps said it would try to reschedule the bee for later this year but it did not commit to a new date. It’s possible the bee won’t be held at all.
March 23, 2020 9:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – In its boldest effort to protect the U.S. economy from the coronavirus, the Federal Reserve says it will buy as much government debt as it deems necessary and will also begin lending to small and large businesses and local governments to help them weather the crisis. The Fed’s announcement removes any dollar limits from its plans to support the flow of credit through an economy that has been ravaged by the viral outbreak. The central bank’s all-out effort has now gone beyond even the extraordinary drive it made to rescue the economy from the 2008 financial crisis. “The coronavirus pandemic is causing tremendous hardship across the United States and around the world,” the Fed said in a statement.
