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Biden to drop most vaccine mandates; COVID-19 cases falling

Tribune-Democrat - 5/5/2023

May 5—Most of the remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements will end next week, the White House announced.

The Associated Press reported earlier this week requirements for federal workers and federal contractors, as well as foreign air travelers to the U.S., will end May 11 when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends.

The process has also begun to lift vaccine requirements for Head Start educators and health care workers.

The requirements are among the last vestiges of some of the more coercive measures taken by the federal government to promote vaccination as the deadly virus raged, and their end marks the latest display of how President Joe Biden's administration is moving to treat COVID-19 as a routine, endemic illness, the AP reported.

"While I believe that these vaccine mandates had a tremendous beneficial impact, we are now at a point where we think that it makes a lot of sense to pull these requirements down," White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told the AP.

"COVID continues to be a problem," Jha said, "but our healthcare system or public health resources are far more able to respond to the threat that COVID poses to our country and do so in a way that does not cause problems with access to care for Americans."

Meanwhile, new cases of COVID-19 continue their descent, dropping below 1,500 new cases statewide for the first time since mid-July 2021.

All eight counties in the region reported fewer than 25 new cases, with three in single digits.

Weekly update

The Pennsylvania Department of Health's weekly update showed 1,326 new cases for the seven-day period ending Tuesday. There were 88 new cases across the eight-county region.

New cases have been dropping every week since the week ending Feb. 14, when 11,213 new cases were added statewide, including 941 across the eight-county region.

Cambria County added 18 new cases and one death related to COVID-19.

Somerset County had three new cases with no deaths.

Bedford County had three new cases with no deaths.

Blair County had two new cases with no deaths.

Indiana County had 15 new case and one death.

Clearfield County had 10 new cases and one death.

Centre County had 13 new cases and two deaths.

Westmoreland County had 24 new cases and two deaths.

Randy Griffith is a reporter for The Tribune- Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5057. Follow him on Twitter @PhotoGriffer57.

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