Pa.’s teachers, schools struggle amid ongoing COVID-19 crisis
Updated on Jan 27, 2021;
Published on Jan 27, 2021
Reopening meant major changes to scheduling, sanitation and even the physical layout of Middletown schools.
“WAS IT COVID?”
One veteran teacher of the Middletown Area School District explains her thought process: “I just spoke to so-and-so in the hall. Do I have it now?”
Fear spreads virulently as students and staff vanish without explanation from Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools this bleak midwinter.
One year into the pandemic, teachers and support staff say they feel set adrift without a lifeline.
They have little recourse when schools fail to follow safety guidelines because school boards and administrators, themselves struggling under budget deficits and staff shortages, have no incentive to admit fault.
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In the hours after the big announcement, the region’s health systems were inundated with phone calls and emails to clinics, physicians and call centers.
Thousands of people were suddenly eligible to get the covid-19 vaccine.
They wanted it fast.
But the announcement by Pennsylvania officials expanding the vaccination eligibility pool to people older than 65, and those with cancer, diabetes and many other conditions came days after health officials learned the federal stockpile of vaccine was depleted, and disruptions in supply were likely to occur as a result.
Levine is currently the face of Pennsylvania s COVID-19 response, serving as the top health official in the commonwealth. She would become the highest-ranking openly transgender official to serve in the federal government.