Wolf wants Legislature to OK more federal relief funds

The state Health Department reported 672 additional cases of the coronavirus Monday, as Gov. Tom Wolf pushed for spending another $225 million of federal aid to help small businesses.

The number of people hospitalized for the coronavirus was 594 statewide around midday Monday. A figure showing the average number of people hospitalized for the virus during the previous 14 days rose above 500 for the first time in more than three weeks Monday, reaching 502.1.

At a Monday morning news conference, Wolf said that $192 million in grants using federal emergency money already have been distributed through the COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance Program.

“We need to do more,” Wolf said at the newsconference. “This pandemic has affected so many businesses in so many parts of Pennsylvania.”

Wolf said he wants the Legislature to approve spending another $225 million of federal coronavirus relief money the state has $1.1 billion still unused on the small-business grant program.

The small-business money already distributed went through the Pennsylvania Community Development Financial Institutions network. Wolf praised the network for getting significant amounts of money to businesses owned by minorities.

The request from Wolf, a Democrat, was met with criticism from a spoke man for House Republicans, who control that chamber. Republicans also have the majority in the state Senate.

Spokesman Jason Gottesman said Wolf’s “overbroad and inconsistent economic shutdown” hurt small businesses in pandemic and his request to use federal money to “bail him out” was disingenuous.

Gottesman said the remaining $1.1 billion in federal emergency money the state has in hand should not be drained. The state, he said, faces a nearly $5 billion budget deficit and the federal aid is “the largest resource wehave to respond to any additional needs” that might crop up as a result of the pandemic.

The newly reported virus cases Monday include 11 in Lehigh County and nine in Northampton County.

Statewide, the seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 913 Monday, although that figure reflects hundreds of cases that were newly reported in the last week but were actually detected more than a month ago. The number was 740 a week ago.

There are 11 more deaths reported in the state to bring the total to 8,227, including one new death in Lehigh County.

— Ford Turner