Sgt. Robert Fitzgerald of the 128th Brigade Support Battalion, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, explains the use of a COVID-19 test swab on Monday in McKeesport. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A new drive-through COVID-19 test site located at the Industrial Center of McKeesport is expected to remain operational for 45 to 60 days, but could stay open longer if necessary.
“This pandemic changes constantly and the planning changes constantly,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department.
Allegheny County and state officials offered a tour of the site on Monday morning. The site opens to the public at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Health officials are hopeful that within a few months, most doctors’ offices will be able to offer COVID-19 tests, Bogen said, so for now, the McKeesport site is the only drive-through facility planned in Allegheny County.
Up to 250 people per day can be tested at the site, located just off of Lysle Boulevard, officials said. Samples will be taken by courier daily to a state lab in Harrisburg, they said, and results of most tests will be available in 48 hours or less.
An Allegheny County plumbing inspector assigned to the Mon-Yough area approved work that police allege he couldn’t possibly have seen, according to a criminal complaint.
Now, Allegheny County police are attempting to determine whether Timothy R. Chelosky, 53, of McKeesport and Michael K. O’Toole, 57, of Pittsburgh’s North Side accepted bribes from plumbing contractors.
County police last week executed a search warrant at the offices of Matt Mertz Plumbing Inc. in Ross Township.
In criminal complaints filed with Magisterial District Judge Richard Opiela in Ross Twp., police said that the “overwhelming majority” of the inspection jobs that Chelosky and O’Toole are accused of skipping were work being done by Mertz.
Beginning Monday, appointments can be made at a new drive-up COVID-19 testing site scheduled to open in the city.
Persons with valid email addresses will be able to schedule their appointment by going to the county’s website, a county spokeswoman said.
People without email access may call (412) 209-2262 during normal business hours (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday) to schedule a next-day appointment.
The testing center is being created inside a vacant portion of the Industrial Center of McKeesport, along Industry Road, near the building once occupied by EchoStar. It is scheduled to begin operations at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
West Newton Public Library is “respectfully asking” that no more donations be made for its upcoming book sale “due to the outstanding response.”
The library is holding the used book sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 3 in its parking lot at 124 N. Water St. Social distancing measures will be in place and masks are required.
A spokesperson said that the library has been asked by the Westmoreland Library Network to disinfect all books that come into the facility for any purpose. All of the items that already have been donated must be cleaned off before Oct. 3, the library said.
Donations of gently used books and other items will be accepted again after the sale, the spokesperson said.
Serra Catholic High School moved all students to online learning Friday and suspended sports activities through the weekend after two students tested positive for COVID-19.
An announcement from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said the move was made “out of an abundance of caution” and that neither student was experiencing symptoms of the disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The school in Haler Heights is expected to remain closed through Monday, the diocese said.
The announcement came as state officials reported more than a thousand new cases of coronavirus across Pennsylvania. State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said many of the new cases are among college students who have returned to campuses.
Now in its sixth year, McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center’s Living History Tour features live actors recounting some of our area’s memorable figures and events.
The tour takes place this weekend at McKeesport & Versailles Cemetery, just off Fifth Avenue near UPMC McKeesport hospital. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tickets are timed and should be purchased in advance.
Dave Moore, museum manager for the center, said this year’s tour is designed to entice the community with interesting and “really juicy stories” from McKeesport’s past. “Everyone is into true crime right now.”
COVID-19 continues to disproportionately affect Black residents, according to statistics from the Allegheny County Health Department.
And bars and restaurants remain the number one location visited by people who have tested positive for COVID-19, the health department said in a report released Wednesday. Weddings, funerals and parties also are among the events that sufferers reported attending before their diagnoses.
Although only 14 percent of county residents are Black, they represent 25 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County, the latest health department statistics indicate.
A drive-through COVID-19 testing center will open in the city next week, the Allegheny County Health Department announced Wednesday.
Build-out of the site, located in the Industrial Center of McKeesport, began Tuesday, said Amie Downs, county spokeswoman.
Tests will be free but appointments will be required, she said. Funding for the site is being provided by the federal coronavirus stimulus program and the money has been allocated by state officials, Downs said.
The site will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, beginning Sept. 15.
The cornerstone of a now-demolished McKeesport church has made its way to a new home in Cleveland, Ohio.
After months of persistence, Cleveland resident and historian Nicholas Boros secured the cornerstone of the former St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church on Beacon Street and moved it to his own church, St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
“It was all very last minute,” said Boros, who had assumed his efforts to preserve the cornerstone had been unsuccessful. “I didn’t know I was getting it until three days before leaving for Cleveland.”
St. Stephen’s closed in 2002 following the death of its longtime pastor, the Rev. Stephen Kato.
Mon Valley area households that are struggling to make ends meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for up to $1,000 in emergency assistance.
Stephanie Eson, operations and community programs manager for the Human Services Center Corp., based in Turtle Creek, said the agency is one of four in Allegheny County that have been selected to provide the assistance.
Funding is being provided under a federal Community Services Block Grant and administered by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and the state Department of Community & Economic Development.
