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Posted on 06/19/2020 10:24:37 AM PDT by lightman
Lebanon County is the only county in Pennsylvania that is not being given approval from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to move to the green phase.
The Wolf administration said Friday 12 more counties will move next week to the green phase, the least restrictive in the governor’s plan to reopen Pennsylvania amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those counties include Philadelphia and all of its suburbs.
Earlier Friday, eight counties, including Dauphin, moved into the green phase. As of Friday, 54 counties are now in the green phase, with 12 more headed there next Friday.
On June 26, Lebanon County will stand alone among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties by not entering the green phase. In a news release, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Lebanon County is seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases.
Levine also pointedly criticized Lebanon County elected officials for defying the Wolf administration’s recommendations in reopening businesses. The Wolf administration noted that Lebanon County’s commissioners voted 2-1, along party lines, to reopen the county in May.
“Lebanon County’s partisan, politically driven decision to ignore public health experts and reopen prematurely is having severe consequences for the health and safety of county residents,” Dr. Levine said in the news release.
“Case counts have escalated and the county is not yet ready to be reopened,” Levine continued. “Lebanon County has hindered its progress by reopening too early. Because of this irresponsible decision, Lebanon County residents are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.”
Lebanon County has had more than 1,200 people contract the virus and 40 have died.
Earlier this month, Lebanon County elected officials gathered at the Taste of Sicily restaurant in Palmyra, which served customers in its dining room in defiance of the Wolf administration orders. The state suspended the restaurant’s license but the owners vowed to stay open.
State Rep. Russ Diamond, a Lebanon County Republican, has introduced a resolution calling for Levine’s removal or resignation as health secretary. Diamond faulted Levine for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its spread through nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
More than 80,000 Pennsylvania residents have contracted the coronavirus and more than 6,300 have died. More than two-thirds of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been in nursing homes or personal care homes.
The Wolf administration said the 12 counties will move to the green phase on June 26. They are: Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Susquehanna.
With the green phase, schools can open and restaurants can once again offer indoor dining, with limits on occupancy. Other businesses, such as casinos, hair salons and gyms, can open their doors again, albeit with some restrictions.
Wolf continues to draw criticism from Republican lawmakers who contend the governor has opened the state too slowly. Last week, the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed a resolution directing Wolf to end the state of emergency, which he extended earlier this month. Wolf has said he would veto it, while Republican lawmakers say he lacks the authority.
The matter is headed for the state Supreme Court, which agreed Wednesday to take up the case.
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It is NOT about "your health."
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
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As of today....
What do the colors mean?
He must be Anti Amish.
He is such a bastard! We got our green today. Woopie. Hair cut tonight!
Wolf/Levine are responsible for the murder of thousands in nursing homes while Levine moved her mother to a hotel in the first days of the quarantine...demonstrating that she knew it was a bad idea.
Pennsylvania is not alone. NY, NJ, CT and MI all moved contagious patients from safe hospitals into ill-equipped nursing homes where they spread the infection and killed tens of thousands.
While not much was known about the Wuhan virus in the early stages, it was clear that it attacked the elderly and vulnerable much more harshly. Effective leadership would have protected those people, but the Democrat governors did not.
Florida did not follow this pattern and their nursing home deaths are tiny compared to states with Democrat governors.
Democrats = The Party of Death
Gov Wolf, It's over! Enough!!!
Levine moved His mother. Rachel Levine is a man, in a dress.
Not for another week.
Good to know as I’ll be in PA for a little
over a week starting the 27th.
Here in MA restaurants can resume indoor
dining with regulations as of Monday.
Bars with no kitchen not till phase 4—and
that will involve a vaccine or whatever.It will be a long way off.Almost one quarter of MA restaurants have closed permanently
due to this.
You should be able to eat outside.
Some restaurants in DE are allowing dining inside.
Dickless needs to be hanged.
Lebanon Levi is not happy.
Welcome to Trans-sylvania!
Outside, inside too I believe in
all but one county.
Ate outside in Matamoras (Stewie’s)
and Jim Thorpe (Molly McGuires) a
few weeks ago, on a separate trip.
In other cases took food back to
motel room like Miller’s Ale House.
Buffet places...? I doubt buffets
allowed at Eat n Park or Hoss’
but other things on menu.
Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh had
a German lunch buffet in past
but probably not now. Would eat whatever
else they have.
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