Bucks Co. Leaders 'Praying For Yellow' On Friday

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — A day before Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to announce a new batch of counties moving to the less-restrictive yellow phase of Pennsylvania's coronavirus response plan, Bucks County leaders said Thursday they hope to be on the list.

"I know I'm still praying for yellow coming tomorrow," said Bucks County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Diane Ellis-Marseglia.

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As of Thursday, 49 Pennsylvania counties had been moved to the yellow phase under Wolf's color-coded reopening plan, while 18, including Bucks, remained in the red phase. Wolf said Thursday that some counties may move to the even more open green phase soon.

While Bucks County has not hit the target number of coronavirus cases called for in Wolf's reopening plan, officials have argued for weeks that the county is ready for fewer restrictions. They have pointed to the high number of Bucks County's cases confined to nursing homes and other care facilities and the work county health officials have done to trace the cause of almost every known case of the virus.

"We've made the point for weeks now, really ... that we feel that certainly there needs to be a different look at some of the metrics that were established by the state early on," said Commissioner Bob Harvie, the board's vice chairman. "We all feel very confident in the steps that have been taken by the county government, by the rest of this county (and) ... I'm hopeful that we're going to be recognized for all that hard work."

During an online news conference Thursday, commissioners were asked about rumors that Bucks officials have been told the county won't move to yellow until at least June. They denied that rumor.

"I've heard nothing coming out of Harrisburg about a middle of June to end of June time frame," said Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, who, until January, served as a state representative for the Bensalem area. "I've heard nothing about that."

After a two-day spike that saw 81 new coronavirus cases reported in Bucks County on Monday and 67 on Tuesday, the county reported 44 new cases on Wednesday.

Bucks County's new-case count over the past 14 days has averaged 71 cases per day. But officials say that when using the onset date, which they call more accurate, the 14-day average is 43 cases per day.

The reopening plan set forth by Wolf requires that an area have fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the course of 14 days. In Bucks County, that would require an average of about 22 new cases per day.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, there have been 4,486 confirmed cases in Bucks County and 405 deaths. A total of 126 patients remained hospitalized on Wednesday, with 22 of them in critical condition and on ventilators.

As of Wednesday, 1,366 people in Bucks County have been confirmed to have recovered from the virus.

Statistics, charts and other coronavirus-related information for Bucks County can be found on the county's coronavirus data portal.

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