PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/covid-19/)
Parents are trying to wrap their heads around how they will work while helping their kids complete distance learning, or processing just what schools will look like if our kids do go in person during COVID-19. But what do the kids think?
When stay-at-home orders were enacted in late March, many people experiencing homelessness had nowhere to go. Shelters around the city saw increases in demand and have had to adapt to this new reality, taking measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, keep residents occupied and help people living on the streets. These new conditions have had an impact on residents’ mental health and, combined with heightened demand, have increased shelters’ operating costs.
Many researchers at the university have already been back to work for nearly two months. And seven of those researchers told PublicSource that the university could learn some lessons from the way it reopened its labs.
In Pittsburgh, many teachers wonder how a safe physical return to school is at all possible.
At last, details of the health and safety plan for Pittsburgh Public Schools were released Wednesday at the start of the school board’s July legislative meeting. It was also proposed by a board member that staff and students begin the first nine weeks of the school year in full-time e-learning. The release of the 59-page health and safety plan comes two days after a public hearing, where multiple speakers voiced worries to the board about the return to school in the fall.
Pam Capretta, district chief operations officer, presented key aspects from the plan regarding cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting, monitoring, social distancing and other health and safety protocols. More than 770 viewers were tuned into the livestream. The school board’s vote on the plan was postponed until Aug.
Pablo Salazar’s difficulty getting a COVID-19 test in a reasonable amount of time is similar to many others’ experiences in Allegheny County and across the country. While experts say testing within 48 hours would be a reasonable benchmark, demand for testing in the United States means many patients are waiting much longer.
It’s a historic task in the making. How can Pittsburgh Public Schools reopen by the end of next month? More than 300 parents, students, educators, public and health officials, community members and dozens of organizations collaborated on the undertaking. They spent hundreds of hours conversing about what families and staff need for a safe return to Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] as part of the district’s All In to Reopen Our Schools campaign. On Wednesday, 407 recommendations for the district from the campaign’s 14 subcommittees on topics from instruction to health and safety were made public on the district website.
Update (7/14/20): UPMC will lead the charge to test all southwestern Pennsylvania care home residents and employees for COVID-19, and to strengthen the facilities' ability to fight the virus, the state Department of Human Services announced. The department announced that UPMC will also join the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in working with facilities in the state's northwest. Efforts in other regions of the state will be led by Thomas Jefferson University with the University of Pennsylvania (southeast), Geisinger Clinic and Lehigh Valley Hospital (northeast), Pennsylvania State University (southcentral) and Geisinger Clinic (northcentral). UPMC has applied to lead a $52.5 million state-funded effort to harden nursing homes and similar facilities — from Pittsburgh to Erie — against COVID-19. A decision from the state Department of Human Services on the contract is expected this week.
Many Pittsburgh refugees escaped persecution and disease in their home counties, but there isn’t anywhere to go to stay safe from COVID-19 in the United States and there are many barriers they face.
