HARRISBURG – By this time next week, all of the Valley will be in the green phase of Pennsylvania’s reopening plan from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an announcement Friday, Governor Tom Wolf says Northumberland and Union counties will join the rest of the Valley and move to the green phase next Friday, “First, thank you to the health care workers, they are the heroes. Thank you too, to our essential workers for keeping us fed, clothed, and housed during this crisis. Third, thank you to the local officials who have had to make very tough decisions, and finally, thank you to all Pennsylvanians for doing your part.”
Snyder and Montour counties have been in the green phase the last two weeks, while Union and Northumberland stayed yellow. A total of 12 counties will go green next Friday, includeing neighboring Columbia, Juniata and Mifflin counties, as well as Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Cumberland, Wayne, Wyoming and York.
Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine also gave a little more insight as to what’s next as more counties move to the green phase, “As we continue to bend the curve, a number of the restrictions that we have in green, in terms of businesses such as restaurants, etc, we will be able to relax. So whether we call it ‘golden’ or just ‘green’ we don’t intend to continue to all those restrictions forever, but we are going to have to be alert, particularly in the fall.”
Dr. Levine also says a new tool is now available on the Department of Health’s website that allows residents to see how their county is doing in the reopening process, “These metrics include either a stable or decreasing, or low-confirmed case counts over the past two weeks, that the positivity rate of the tests for the virus itself is less than 10% in the last 14 days, that hospital bed usage is 90% or lower for the regional population.”
You can find that in the ‘PA Data’ section of the department’s website. Hear Friday’s full remarks from the governor at Dr. Levine here.
