Pa. will ease coronavirus restrictions in 24 counties
HARRISBURG — The Wolf administration will begin reopening counties next week in large swaths of northern Pennsylvania, the first step in a tiered plan to gradually lift sweeping orders that have shut down nearly every aspect of daily life because of COVID-19.
Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced that 24 northwest and north-central counties can enter the “yellow” phase of his color-coded reopening plan on May 8.
The counties allowed to do so are: Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango and Warren.
Mr. Wolf did not provide a timeline for reopening other counties. Some officials in the southwest region objected to their counties, particularly those with lower populations and low case counts, being left off the list.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — partly based on some of the positive things the governor said — said that he hoped the county would be moved into the yellow category by midmonth.
There will still be restrictions in the yellow phase. Large social gatherings will be banned, and many of the activities of daily life, from working to shopping to socializing, will still be curtailed.
But in his midafternoon briefing Friday, Mr. Wolf tried to strike a positive note, crediting the willingness of residents across the state to stay home for slowing the spread of the virus.
“Over the past two months, Pennsylvanians in every corner of our commonwealth have acted collectively to stop the spread of COVID19,” he said. “Each of these actions seem small individually, but taken together, they built a very powerful weapon against COVID-19. Working together, we Pennsylvanians have flattened the curve.”
The governor stressed that if an outbreak occurs, his administration would quickly move to reinstate
strict business closure and stay-at-home orders. If there is no spread, the next step would be the “green” phase, where most restrictions are lifted.
“If we see an outbreak occur in one of the communities that has been moved to yellow, we will need to take swift action and revert to the red category until the new case count falls again,” Mr. Wolf said in a statement. “So, Pennsylvanians living in a county that has been moved to the yellow category should continue to strongly consider the impact of their actions.”
Mr. Wolf said the 24 counties were selected in part because of their low case counts and their ability to conduct testing and contact tracing. They also are largely in less densely populated areas of the state.
When asked why the 11county southwest region was not moved from red to yellow, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine several times cited Pittsburgh and Allegheny County’s “density.”
“We have certainly learned from our modeling and our experts that population density is one of the main factors that can lead to significant spread of COVID-19. We certainly have seen that in major cities throughout the country and have seen the consequences, particularly in New York City,” she said.
“And so we felt it prudent that looking at all the different data and looking at all the metrics, but taking consideration in our ability to work with counties in terms of contact tracing and testing, and the population density of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, that it was not prudent to go from red to yellow at this time. But we are hoping to do that in the future.”
Mr. Fitzgerald said after the governor and health secretary’s news conference that he was surprised to hear Dr. Levine bring up population density as the major reason the region was not moved from red to yellow.
“On the density thing, that is the very first time I ever heard that,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “That caught all of us by surprise.
“And the thing is, that’s not going to change. We’re always going to be an urban center,” he added.
That said, Mr. Fitzgerald noted that Mr. Wolf said the southwestern region “was close” to being ready to reopen.
“If we continue to keep our numbers low, we should be able” to move from red to yellow soon, he said. “My hope is on May 15 we will be allowed to move from red to yellow.”
Mr. Fitzgerald said his understanding is that the state will make weekly evaluations to see when other regions are ready to move from red to yellow.
He said he understood “there’s probably some level of disappointment” in the region, particularly among those businesses that would have been allowed to reopen, but he said he remains “optimistic” the region will be able to reopen soon.
Mr. Fitzgerald said he was happy to see nearby Lawrence and Mercer counties in the northwest region will be allowed to reopen.
“But I would certainly encourage them, as well as anybody else, not to take their foot off the gas and keep your social distancing going,” he said.
Timothy McNulty, a spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, said the city would be closely watching the next round of counties that have their restrictions loosened.
“The City of Pittsburgh has been following Gov. Wolf’s guidelines ever since the start of the pandemic and will continue to do so,” Mr. McNulty said.
Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, sent out a news release immediately after the governor and secretary ended their news conference, criticizing the governor for not moving the southwest region from red to yellow.
“Using the available data, the counties in southwest Pennsylvania should be moving to yellow,” Mr. Turzai said in the short release, which was accompanied by a graphic of the case rates for all 11 counties.
“Less than 5% of the hospital beds are COVID-19-occupied, and every county but one meets the administration’s 14-day total of COVID19-related cases. Of those cases, in Beaver County, nearly 70% are attributable to long-term care facilities. We urge the governor to move the southwest counties to the yellow phase immediately.”
Democratic state Rep. Pam Snyder said in her own news release that Greene, Fayette and Washington counties in her district are among those that should have been included in the reopening announcement, and she urged Mr. Wolf to lift those restrictions immediately.
Ms. Snyder said her “district’s counties were held to an extremely unfair measurement standard by being held to the same restrictions as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.”
In a news release announcing the county openings, the governor’s office provided a summary of Carnegie Mellon University’s “Risk-Based Decision Support Tool,” which the release said was considered alongside testing and contact tracing capabilities.
In the tool, each of the six regions of the state are assigned values on five indices: “COVID-19 Case Risk,” measured by COVID-19 cases per capita; “ICU Capacity Risk,” measured by the number of residents over the age of 60 per hospital bed; “Population Density Risk”; “Population Age Risk,” measured by the percentage of the population over 60; and the “Re-Opening Contact Risk,” measured by the percentage of workers in a closed sector.
Graphs throughout the report show each region’s rating on each index. The southcentral, northeast and southeast regions earn much higher COVID Case Risk rankings than the other regions, and the northeast also earns a high risk rating for ICU Capacity.
In a table at the end of the report, regions are assigned a check mark, a caution sign or an “X” on each index. All six regions received a caution sign on “Re-Opening Contact Risk.” The two regions opening on May 8, northwest and north-central, have check marks in all other areas. Southwest Pennsylvania has a check mark in all areas except population density, where it has a caution sign.
In March, Mr. Wolf shut down much of the state’s economy and began implementing stay-at-home orders to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by COVID19 cases.
As Republican lawmakers pressured the governor to lift restrictions on some impacted sectors, Mr. Wolf announced he would allow construction to resume statewide and golf courses, campgrounds and marinas to reopen as long as precautions are taken on-site.
Mr. Wolf has also increased the number of staterun wine and spirits stores that can offer curbside pickup.
Gordon Denlinger, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents 13,000 small businesses in the state, welcomed the news, as many mom and pop shops are cash-strapped and have not received loans from the government.
“Being shuttered and having to lay off employees over the last month and a half has been very difficult for small business owners,” Mr. Denlinger said. ”We look forward to other areas of Pennsylvania following suit.” Post-Gazette staff writers Andrew Goldstein and Kyle Mullins and Spotlight PA reporters Cynthia Fernandez and Aneri Pattani contributed to this story. Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News.