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Gov. Tom Wolf announced today that 24 Pennsylvania counties will be reopening next week with some COVID-19 restrictions lifted. However, Allegheny County and its surrounding counties that make up the greater Pittsburgh metro area, are not on the list.
Only 24 counties in Pennsylvania’s northwest and northcentral are set to partially reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Fri., May 8. Those counties 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.
Wolf said that those counties would move into the “yellow phase” of his reopen plan on May 8.
According to a press release, “These counties were deemed ready to move to a reopening — or yellow phase — because of low per-capita case counts, the ability to conduct contact tracing and testing, and appropriate population density to contain community spread.”
In a press conference held this afternoon with Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, Wolf said the yellow phase still requires social distancing and that places like gyms, theaters, casinos, restaurant dining rooms, and school buildings will remain closed. Visits to nursing homes and prisons will still be prohibited.
“Your actions will guide our future,” said Wolf.
Hair and nail salons are also restricted from opening in yellow phases. “It is impossible to practice social distancing when you have a hands-on treatment,” Levine said at the press conference.
When asked why Allegheny County was not included in the list of reopenings, Levine said, “The southwest region is not yet moving from red to yellow because of population density.”
All counties who remain in the red stay-at-home order will be required to do so for at least several weeks before they will be considered for reopening.
“Every human-to-human contact is a chance for the virus to spread, so more contacts mean a higher likelihood of an outbreak,” Wolf said in the press release. “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. So, Pennsylvanians living in a county that has been moved to the yellow category should continue to strongly consider the impact of their actions.”
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2020.
I love how the rules of the game change from day to day!!! Is the government going to trim the population density down some other way so we can be free again???
People are tired of the inconsistency’s.. Allegheny county meets the criteria for opening up!!!
Yesterday
30 new cases in nursing home!
Only
1 death
Nursing home….
Governor Wolf is an idiot and so is that so called lady Rachel running the health dept!!!!
Unbelievable stupidity from runaway government: https://wp.me/p5Ag8x-3QR
Why are we listening to this wack job Gov. and what ever it is Doctor. We need to open up now. Have gotten nothing from UC for 7 weeks . Still have no Idea yet how much I am going to get. I heard it may not open till June 28 th. That is two more house and car and utility payments not to mention food and all the other expenses to live on . We no longer live as free people , These two morons have no right to keep us from making a living while they are still getting paid. Keep this shit up and you will get exactly what you assholes deserve , your removal from office . What ever it takes.
if were in wayne county and in the red on the map then are the golf coures allowed to open
remove the stupid mask requirement for shopping etc too. wolf and his “health secretary,mr. levine need to resign ASAP. the air we breathe is not contagious. ASSuming everyone has the flu virus is akin to you are guilty unless you prove to us you are innocent. its tyranny.
The most elementary skill at data analysis is so beyond these jokers it confirms that you get to these positions not by your skill and intelligence but by how good you are at BS and manipulation. How can you not recognize that if the PA gov’t dealt with the issues in critical populations (nursing homes, dense urban populations) that the vast majority of the population has not been significantly impacted other than by poor policies. This is the time for discriminative application of policies because the darn virus DOES discriminate. IDIOTS and COWARDS