alison-beam
Pa. regulatory panel upholds Wolf’s school mask order; eyes turn to courts
'Executive overreach should be challenged when it occurs,' Pa. House Speaker Bryan Cutler said.
Health Department responds to ‘bullying’ accusation, says lawmaker took information out of context
“The letter in question has been used since the beginning of the pandemic — nearly 20 months — and is sent to close contacts — or their parent [or] guardian with quarantine instructions only in situations where the individual is uncooperative and refuses to quarantine."
Responding to frustrations, Health Department says it’s working on communication with K-12 schools
“Of course, this school year has caused a lot of questions with a lot of schools operating in-person, and we’re doing our best to evolve our process to be more responsive,” acting state Health Secretary Alison Beam said.
In response to lawmakers’ request, Wolf admin says it’ll release more detailed pandemic data by legislative district
A day after Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly asked for it, the state will begin releasing more detailed information about the state of the pandemic in Pennsylvania, including vaccine records by legislative district, Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said Friday. “My administration is committed to transparency and we have released a historic amount of public […]
As school begins, state officials offer optional vaccination, testing initiatives to districts
Speaking to reporters Monday, state officials unveiled a plan for schools to work with vaccine providers to offer on-site vaccination clinics, and a plan for optional classroom testing. The initiatives are the result of partnerships between the Wolf administration, Concentric by Ginkgo Bioworks and vaccine providers statewide.
Pa. health officials decline new mask mandate, discuss vaccine initiatives
Pennsylvania exceeded 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases for the first time since May -- the state reported 1,088 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in the commonwealth is 710 -- a 62 percent increase compared to last week.
How are Pa. Health officials planning to increase accountability, privacy with new contact tracer?
It’s believed that an unauthorized document with the health information of 76,000 Pennsylvanians has been scrubbed from the internet, the state’s top health official told a legislative panel on Wednesday.
After more than a year, Pa’s mask mandate ends Monday
As of Friday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine tracker confirmed that 75 percent of adult Pennsylvanians had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 59.5 percent of adult Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
On track to achieve vaccine benchmark, Pa. plans to lift mask mandate by June 28
Statewide data show that nearly 98 percent of senior citizens and 70 percent of adults have received at least one dose.
Despite update to CDC masking rule, Pa. businesses, schools can require masks
The reminder, issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, says that while fully vaccinated individuals are free to go maskless most of the time, they must wear a face covering if a business, school or other organization in the commonwealth requires it.
Fully vaxxed Pennsylvanians can go mask-free, state health officials confirm
The announcement comes just hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidance on mask wearing.
With an eye toward improving vaccine equity, Pa. Health Dept. rolls out expanded vaccine demographic data
The update, announced last week, follows the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s push to make the commonwealth’s vaccination efforts more equitable. Acting state Health Secretary Alison Beam said it will help the department monitor the progress of “equitable distribution” across the commonwealth.