Health & Science

The staggering spike in fatalities and infections has overwhelmed hospitals, an increase many experts attribute to relaxed precautions at Thanksgiving.

With the first COVID-19 vaccines expected to be shipped out within days, health care providers are scrambling to prepare for an unprecedentedly high-stakes vaccine rollout.

There are now more COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county than there were in the spring, said Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, chair of the Montco Board of Commissioners.

The vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech is the first to be authorized by Canadian officials. The decision makes Canada just the third country to grant such authorization.

A federal judge ruled the Federal Trade Commission cannot stop a merger between Einstein Healthcare Network and Jefferson Health, both with hospitals in the Philly region.

We discuss the science behind the vaccines, the rollout and who will be lining up to get vaccinated.

U.K. regulators say people who have a “significant history’’ of allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer COVID vaccine while they investigate two adverse reactions.

The reaction is mixed among Mercer County residents as to whether they would take a vaccine for the coronavirus when one becomes available.

Starting Dec. 9, tests will be available to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., provided by Cooper University Health Care.

The previous peak was 337 in late April, but the number of people needing hospital beds had dropped to 29 by late August. Now there’s 338 COVID-19 patients in the hospital.

The crisis is all but certain to get worse from the fallout of Americans traveling in droves around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

If approved, a vaccine could be available in weeks, Philadelphia public health officials said. Still, masking and distancing are critical to stopping the spread.

Across Pa., about 40,000 residents of more than 1,300 nursing and personal care homes have contracted the virus to date. About 7,000 have died, more than 60% of Pa.'s total.

The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis online even as across the Atlantic, Britain on Tuesday began vaccinating its oldest citizens with the Pfizer shots.

A 90-year-old woman from Coventry received the first vaccine shot as part of the United Kingdom's nationwide immunization campaign launched Tuesday.