Announcement Coming Friday On More PA Counties To Reopen

HARRISBURG, PA — Gov. Tom Wolf will be making another announcement Friday regarding additional Pennsylvania counties that will be permitted to move into the "yellow" phase of coronavirus mitigation.

Wolf, in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, said the next batch of counties slated for a scheduled reopening remain under consideration at this time. "We'll be making another announcement tomorrow and we will decide tomorrow morning what those counties are," Wolf said.

So far, 24 counties have been moved to the "yellow" phase of mitigation measures, while 13 more will do so Friday. That leaves 30 Pennsylvania counties whose futures remain in limbo — and tensions are increasing.

Some Pennsylvania counties, growing impatient with the governor's coronavirus mitigation strategy, said publicly over the weekend they're moving independently to lift the restrictions in an effort to get residents back to work. The governor has warned those counties that there will be consequences in that approach — including a loss of federal stimulus discretionary funds.

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All of Pennsylvania's non-essential businesses were closed March 19 by governor's order.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday reported 938 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 59,636.

The state's death count is 4,218. There were 44 new deaths reported overnight and the remaining 231 were reported as a result of "a reconciliation of data" over the past several weeks.

The governor has not scheduled a time for Friday's announcement. Check back to Patch for updates.

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