Wolf to ease restrictions elsewhere, but still has concerns

HARRISBURG, PA. » Gov. Tom Wolf will announce Friday that more counties can see some of his tightest pandemic restrictions lifted, as counties and lawmakers kept up pressure on him to ease up on his orders.

In a telephone news conference Thursday with reporters, Wolf said he will make his decision on Friday morning. However, he has not changed his criteria for deciding which counties can emerge from his stayat-home order and his order for non-life-sustaining businesses to close, he said.

His health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, echoed that, saying that the administration will continue to count cases in prisons, factories, nursing homes and other large settings prone to outbreaks against a county’s total.

That is bad news for counties such as Beaver and Huntingdon that blame much of their outbreak on a single institution, like a prison or nursing home, and remain under the governor’s tightest restrictions.

“We are bending the curve, we are having some success and that is reflected in over half the counties that, as of tomorrow, will be open, and there will be more coming,” Wolf told reporters.

Critics, primarily Republicans, contend that Wolf has changed his goals over time, and say his shutdown orders are inflicting undue suffering and are no longer warranted. He has met his original goal of ensuring that hospitals did not become overwhelmed by a surge in extremely ill coronavirus patients, they say.

Instead, they say, Wolf’s focus on a broad shutdown is misplaced, since nursing homes and personal care homes for the elderly account for two-thirds of the state’s more than 4,200 reported coronavirus deaths. In a growing chorus, Republicans and Democrats alike cite the opinions of doctors at health systems in Pennsylvania who say the economy can safely reopen and co-exist with the virus.

Wolf agreed that Pennsylvania is “in a better place now.” But, he said, he still has concerns with the availability of personal protective equipment and hospital capacity in some areas, and he still wants to see a flatter curve.

Wolf allowed 24 counties in northern Pennsylvania last week to emerge from his tightest restrictions and another 13 counties in western Pennsylvania to emerge starting Friday. That leaves another 30 counties, primarily in hard-hit eastern Pennsylvania, that are home to twothirds of the state’s 12.8 million people.

Nine counties that remain under Wolf’s tightest restrictions meet one of his criteria of no more than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days. That includes York County, the state’s eighth-most populous.

At least seven other Republican-controlled counties, including Beaver, Huntingdon and Lancaster, the state’s seventh-most populous, have signaled that they will defy Wolf’s orders starting Friday.

Many of them say Wolf’s administration has been opaque in how it is making decisions and, on their own, they will consider at least some of Wolf’s restrictions lifted for businesses that can adhere to state or federal health safety guidelines.