***Clearfield and Jefferson Counties, PA -  For COVID-19 event suspensions, postponements, and cancellations CLICK HERE*** **As per Gov. Tom Wolf, all schools K-12 will close Monday, March 16th and will remain closed until further notice. Full story here.** * For lunches for local school students, find details here* *Find DuBois Food Pantry Info here.*   Updated 03/27/20 Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania will use $50 million in state funding to supply medical equipment to hospitals and other healthcare workers to prepare for combatting the novel coronavirus. Governor Tom Wolf announced that he will spend up to $50 million in transferred state funding to purchase medical equipment and supplies for hospitals, nursing homes, and emergency workers to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania. See Gov. Wolf's full statement here. Updated 03/27/20 Harrisburg, PA – New funding is available to help small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, through a new program under the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority’s (PIDA) Small Business First Fund, the COVID-19 Working Capital Access Program (CWCA). The Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) recently authorized the transfer of $40 million to the Small Business First Fund for CWCA. PIDA authorized making $60 million available to provide loans of $100,000 or less to for-profit businesses with 100 or fewer full-time employees. Funds are expected to become available this week. Learn more about the Small Business First Fund here. Updated 03/27/20 Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced that the Department of Homeland Security has postponed the enforcement date for REAL ID from October 1, 2020, to October 1, 2021, in response to COVID-19 and the national emergency declaration. PennDOT closed all driver and photo license centers on March 16 and paused REAL ID issuance in the state out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of public health. Centers will reopen no sooner than April 3. PennDOT also sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, requesting that the agency consider extending the October 1, 2020 REAL ID enforcement deadline. Updated 03/26/20 Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., March 25, that there are 276 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 1,127 in 44 counties. The department also reported four new deaths, bringing the statewide death total to 11. All people are either in isolation at home or being treated at the hospital. Read the full story here. Updated 03/26/20 Harrisburg, PA (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration reported four more coronavirus-related deaths in Pennsylvania on Wednesday and ordered residents of Lehigh and Northampton counties to stay home, with few exceptions. Before Wednesday, Wolf’s orders covered eight counties, including Philadelphia, Allegheny County and Philadelphia’s four heavily populated suburban counties. The 10 counties account for half of Pennsylvania’s 12.8 million residents and 80% of its more than 1,120 coronavirus cases. Lawmakers also passed a measure to delay Pennsylvania’s primary election by five weeks, potentially past the spike of the state’s spreading coronavirus cases. Wolf plans to sign it.

DuBois, PA – In the middle of the chaos came an act of kindness from First Class Children’s Foundation. Matt Reed and his organization dropped off Imagination Boxes full of books, Pokemon trading card, fun school supplies, and art products to five lucky kids this past weekend! CLICK HERE to see the heartwarming video. In addition to the five special boxes, Matt also gave about about a hundred free books to other kids. The First Class Children’s Foundation team delivered the books to people’s door/mailbox throughout the greater DuBois area. No face to face contact necessary, just great books for children to read! First Class Children’s Foundation responded to the National Pandemic by doing what we have done since day 1: we helped local kids! We began a program Thursday night on Facebook with the idea to give away free books and educational supplies to children. The response was amazing. In total we gave away 115 of Scholastics newest and best kids books. We gave away 8 Imagination Boxes (bringing our program total to 181 boxes donated). We made 34 deliveries to local households to drop off books and shipped out 7 packages full of books to children just a little too far away. We urge our supporters to continue to #lookforthehelpers during this tough time. If you look for the helpers, you’ll know that there is hope. -Fred Rogers We were on the road delivering free books and Imagination Boxes to kids all over our area today! Special thanks to my Fiancé Kim, our puppy Ginger, our friend Drew Curley, and my Aunt Vicki Miller for helping to deliver!

Harrisburg, PA – There are other ways to donate and help, in a variety of ways that will benefit people in the hospital, your friends and neighbors, and our communities. One of the best ways to help is to donate blood! There is a desperate need for blood drives to continue. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, people will still need life-saving blood, platelets, and plasma… for things like surgeries, blood loss from accidents and other emergencies, or maintaining health during cancer treatments. One of the most important things you can do to ensure we don’t have another health care crisis on top of coronavirus is to give now. Giving blood is considered an essential community service. As part of our nation’s critical infrastructure, healthy individuals can still donate in areas that have issued shelter in place declarations. Donating is a safe process and people should not hesitate to give or receive blood or platelets. Both the Red Cross and Community Blood Bank have implemented additional precautions to ensure safety of donors and staff. List of Blood Drives Red Cross blood drive – Tuesday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Best Western Conference Center in DuBois Community Blood Bank drive – Thursday, April 2, from 1 until 5 p.m. at Penn Highlands Brookville Community Blood Bank drive – Tuesday, April 7, 1 until 7 p.m. at the Treasure Lake Church Community Blood Bank – Tuesday, April 7 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Penn Highlands Elk Red Cross blood drive – Tuesday, April 7 from 1 until 5:30 p.m. at the Brockwayville Depot in Brockway  

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Harrisburg, PA – Colonel Robert Evanchick, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), issued the following statement on the agency’s enforcement of Governor Tom Wolf’s order closing physical locations of non-life-sustaining businesses: “The priority of the Pennsylvania State Police is protecting lives and maintaining order in the commonwealth. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, troopers and liquor control enforcement officers are prepared to ensure compliance with Governor Wolf’s order. See the updated list here.