Pennsylvania strengthens mask order and quarantine requirements
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
As cases reach record highs in Pennsylvania, Health Secretary Rachel Levine on Tuesday urged the commonwealth’s hospitals to “prepare now” for the possibility of being strained or even overwhelmed this winter, perhaps by December, and possibly put off some non-urgent procedures. She said she will leave it up to the hospitals and health-care systems to determine what measures are necessary in their region.
Levine said she has also ordered anyone who enters Pennsylvania to be tested within 72 hours of arriving, and if they can or do not get a negative test, they must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. The order will go into effect Friday, she said, but will not apply to people who commute to neighboring states for work or health care.
The health secretary said she has also strengthened Pennsylvania’s universal masking order, requiring mask-wearing anywhere in the commonwealth where people are indoors close to others who are not members of their households. She said law enforcement and business owners will be responsible for enforcing the order.
Levine said she has also ordered all colleges and universities to implement and enforce testing and quarantine procedures especially as students come and go from holiday and semester breaks. The announcement comes on a day the commonwealth set a pandemic record with 5,900 additional confirmed cases reported Tuesday. It was the fifth time in the past six days that Pennsylvania has recorded more than 5,000 cases.
Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/live/covid-coronavirus-cases-pa-philadelphia-nj-de-restrictions-updates-hospital-vaccine-news-20201117.html#card-1477532779
Link to tweet
TEXT
@PAHealthDept
Today @SecretaryLevine announced targeted efforts to control the spread of #COVID19 in Pennsylvania, including:
▪️
Issuing memo to acute care hospital CEOs/CMOs outlining opportunity to work collaboratively + expectations if they don’t to ensure health systems can provide care
Targeted efforts to control spread of COVID-19 in PA
1:33 PM · Nov 17, 2020
= new reply since forum marked as read
but they weren't sure if it actually materialized.
In fact, here was an article just last month that says this -
The Expected Coronavirus Baby Boom Isn't Panning Out – Here's Why
Sian BeilockContributor
Education
Scientist researching performance anxiety, women in STEM & education.
If you’re unfamiliar with the pressures placed on working mothers, don’t bother trying to predict women’s reproductive choices – because you’ll always get it wrong. Back in March, when first entering lockdown to prevent the novel coronavirus’ spread, headline, after headline, after headline forecast a massive baby boom in about nine months. It’s only recently become evident how flawed that prediction was. Far from surging, fertility in the United States – which recently hit a 35-year low – is actually dropping like a stone as we continue to hunker down.
The Brookings Institution has estimated that the U.S. birth rate will decline by another 7-10% next year, which amounts to about 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births. And a Guttmacher Institute survey found that 34% of women said they wanted to get pregnant later or wanted fewer children because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? There’s an unspoken expectation that women are responsible for keeping their families’ lives as close to pre-pandemic conditions as possible – all without the support systems on which we used to rely. It’s this invisible labor that makes it impossible for many women to consider growing their families during the pandemic.
As a cognitive scientist, a mother, and an advocate for women, let me be clear: Women can’t and shouldn't be expected to do everything. In my book Choke, I explain that the human brain simply isn’t built to multitask well. A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience backs this up. Researchers used a type of non-invasive optical imaging called broadband near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cellular metabolism in the brain. This innovative investigation into the neurophysiology of information overload shows that energy demands put limits on our brains' ability to process information. In other words, our brains only have enough energy to pay attention to so many things at once.
Multitasking effectively is a myth. It’s no wonder that women who already have too much on their plates are choosing not to add to their workloads. The sudden closure of schools and daycares, forced many of us to unexpectedly take on the roles of teacher and caregiver while continuing to work fulltime. And pre-pandemic government data indicate that women were already spending about twice as much time as men on childcare and household chores.
More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sianbeilock/2020/10/13/the-expected-coronavirus-baby-boom-isnt-panning-out--heres-why/
