No hard and fast rules for counties to reopen,
State Department of Health officials continue fielding questions about what methods they are using to decide which counties — or is it regions? — can begin relaxing the statewide stay-at-home order and reopen their economies.
“Our communication has been consistent about counties and regions,” replied State Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine during her noontime news conference Saturday.
Health officials and Gov. Tom Wolf, she said, are studying data and infection rates, among other factors, to determine whether a county should remain in the red phase that requires people to stay at home or can enter the yellow phase, which allows businesses to reopen and people to begin circulating in public under restrictions.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said late Friday that Allegheny County could be among the next group of counties to be designated to transition from the red phase into the yellow phase.
“For Allegheny County to move into yellow, we are discussing that with [county Health Department Director Dr. Debra] Bogen about testing and the county contact-tracing plans they’ll be implementing, and we’re supporting that and evaluating data from the county and other [surrounding] counties,” Dr. Levine said.
“We’re looking at [disease] modeling to make a determination and recommendations so the governor and the government can make these decisions,” she added.
On Friday, the state announced that 24 northeastern and north-central counties will go yellow this Friday, which means stay-at-home restrictions will be eased with the opening of business under limited occupancy restrictions with residents permitted to circulate in public only if they wear face masks and maintain social distancing.
Dr. Levine said one mostly rural county in north-central Pennsylvania — Columbia County, which has had 13 deaths and 290 positive cases of COVID-19 — won’t be transitioning to yellow Friday.
“This is not specifically about regions,” she said. “There will be other areas and counties that will be able go from red to yellow. We will not stick to any schemem but we will use metrics and consultation with Carnegie Mellon University” and its pandemic modeling program to determine what levels of testing and contact-tracing staffing is needed and underway before a county qualifies to enter the yellow phase.
Dr. Levine also said that population density is a consideration, given the fact that urban areas tend to have more infections and deaths.
That’s particularly the case with Philadelphia, with nearly 30,000 COVID-19 infections and 422 deaths, to date, with high case counts and deaths in the densely populated counties collaring the city.
“Our plan with lots of specifics about lab testing and our contacttracing plan are available on our website,” Dr. Levine said, adding that this “remains a dangerous virus and the virus remains throughout the state of Pennsylvania.”
“We are recommending telework and curbside pickup and social distancing inside stores, and we don’t want large gatherings, so there will not be any competitive or team sporting events,” she said of those counties in the yellow phase.
Statewide, lab testing will continue to identify people who had asymptomatic infections, with those with positive results to undergo isolation. Contact tracing also is getting underway with people found to be positive to be placed in quarantine “so we don’t have significant outbreaks as they are seeing in New Mexico,” she said.
New Mexico is experiencing statewide outbreaks, including one in Gallup that’s so severe that all roads leading to the city of 22,000 people have been closed.