As COVID-19 spreads, and some schools struggle with the decision to keep teaching in-person or switch to remote learning into the winter months, state health and education officials say those decisions will continue to be in the hands of local authorities. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine announced Monday that the state is now encouraging students as young as 13 to download Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 contact app on their cellphones to help with tracking the spread of the disease. And she said there are no plans to require students to get a COVID-19 vaccine, when it becomes available, before starting the 2021-2022 school year because its effects on children are still not well-known.  “We’ll wait and see what the science tells us in terms of the vaccine in young people. We expect it to be safe and effective, but we’re going to have to prove that.” There are also no plans now for a statewide school shutdown, but that might not be needed anyway as several more schools in Western Pennsylvania announced after Thanksgiving they are going fully remote well into December and even into January.

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Source: MICK STINELLI – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, NOV. 30, 2020 1:02 PM.