Red? Yellow? Lancaster county commissioners’ informal declaration of pandemic reopening makes it every business for itself

LANCASTER - Is Lancaster County going to be in the yellow phase of the state’s coronavirus pandemic reopening plan, come Friday? Or is it going to be in red?

The county’s two Republican county commissioners continued to assert Thursday that the county is moving to yellow based on trend lines in new coronavirus case counts, its hospital capabilities, and a concentrated focus on efforts like building up contact tracing capacity and improving infection control programs in nursing homes.

To them, they have done what they can to get the outbreak under control, and the county is ready to go.

The problem is, they haven’t taken any formal action to back up their assertion, and some legal experts don’t think their action would actually hold much weight even if they did.

And the authority that has actually established the pandemic reopening plan for the state under a declaration of a public health emergency, Gov. Tom Wolf and his Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, say the county is still red.

That’s a question that many employers across the county are going to be faced with Friday morning.

In one corner, they have a governor in Tom Wolf, desperate to salvage the integrity of a phased, pandemic reopening plan, who has threatened to turn the weight of state health and licensing agencies on the backs of any business from which complaints are received about operating out of compliance with the state’s orders.

Protecting that plan is important, a public health specialist told PennLive Thursday.

“Are you OK if one person pees in a pool, getting into that pool?," asked Krys Johnson, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Temple University’s College of Public Health. “Are you OK with someone smoking inside a building that’s designated for non-smoking?”

Her point, Johnson said, is that it doesn’t take a lot for an unknown transmission of the virus to trigger a new outbreak that not only could badly harm the infected, but also badly set back the greater fight to control it.

And in Lancaster County, despite recent declines in new case incidence rates, the two-week rate of 109 new cases per 100,000 residents is still more than two times the 50-per-100,000 goal that is one of the most heavily-watched and publicly-discernible of the Wolf Administration’s benchmarks.

“We’re living in a nation where some states are already not abiding the same rules as we are. That’s dangerous enough, without some of the counties within a state following the governor’s orders,” Johnson said. (Wolf, incidentally, is expected to schedule another set of counties for movement into the yellow phase of the state’s reopening plan Friday.)

Lancaster County’s majority Republican county commissioners who say the goal of flattening the curve and making sure that their health care systems weren’t overrun has been achieved, and that now it’s time to do something for the business people and their employees who have been flattened by the coronavirus’s economic impact.

“What we are talking about is protecting lives and livelihoods,” said Commissioner Ray D’Agostino, arguing the county has developed a well-thought out plan to attack the COVID-19 problem in its nursing homes, where most of the deaths have occurred, and the virus has been sufficiently contained in the community-at-large to open up.

D’Agostino and the Commission Chairman, Josh Parsons, both signed onto a joint letter last weekend with most members of the county’s legislative delegation - all Republican - that declared their intent and that the two majority commissioners continue to refer back to when asked if they are taking any formal action.

They were prompted, in part, by Wolf’s extension of stay-at-home orders for all 30 counties not cleared for limited reopening through June 4.

“We sent a letter (to Gov. Tom Wolf)... that said we intend to move forward with a plan to restore Lancaster County and that’s what we’re doing,” Parsons said Thursday.

The commissioners and a key Republican ally, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, criticized Wolf for moving the goal lines in the battle against the coronavirus, said they are focused on meeting the virus where it’s most dangerous (nursing homes) and that the community metrics they are watching - intensive care unit bed usage, ventilator availability and other medical capabilities - are looking good.

As a result, Smucker said, “it is not too early to begin safely and gradually to open some businesses that can follow CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and social distancing guidelines. Any efforts that we can take now to reopen businesses safely could prevent bankruptcies and business closures occurring in the coming months.”

But Parsons also seemed to acknowledge the “authority problem” with that letter when he was asked Thursday what employers should make from the conflicting directions:

“Obviously every business is going to have to assess what that means for themselves. They’re going to have to do their due diligence with what they choose to do," Parsons said. "Obviously the governor’s shown his willingness to be pretty Draconian, so that’s a concern for businesses, I understand.”

And the Republican commissioners also acknowledged, under questioning, that while the county is working a plan to build up local testing capacity and create a corps of people to do contact tracing, both of those functions are still being developed and they are not at the plan’s target operational levels today.

Their Democrat colleague, Craig Lehman, offered a final compromise at Thursday’s news briefing, stating that if the other elements of that plan were ready to go and case rates continue to decline, he would join with the Republicans to petition Wolf to consider Lancaster for a move to yellow as May 22.

The key difference between red and yellow is a change in the presumption that all businesses that are not “life-sustaining” are to be closed, to a presumption that a business can be open unless they are in specific areas - dine-in food service, bars, entertainment venues and personal services like barbers, nail salons or fitness centers - that are deemed too risky under continuing social distancing protocols.

It has been suggested that the GOP commissioners’ gambit is simply an act of leveraging to try to pressure Wolf into moving Lancaster forward on the reopening board.

But others around the county voiced disappointment and frustration Thursday with the emergence of what they called a rushed, mixed message that, they fear, runs the risk of delaying the county’s eventual, full reopening.

Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace reiterated that the city, the county’s largest municipality, is still honoring the governor’s protocols, and her advice to business owners who are not open now is that opening based on the commissioners’ say-so will be “very risky, and I would strongly urge that those risks be evaluated very carefully in contrast to the potential costs.”

In Lititz, a town that’s become a draw for its collection of shops and restaurants, the co-owner of Aaron’s Books, Todd Dickinson, said he was taking a pass on the county’s suggestion.

Aaron’s has been operating as an online business for the last two months, Dickinson said, taking orders on-line and shipping to customers. Moving to yellow under the state’s reopening plan - which Parsons and D’Agostino say they do want to hold to - would permit retailers like Aaron’s to reopen their physical stores as long as they practiced social distancing and followed other applicable guidelines.

Dickinson said sales are down significantly since mid-March, and he is eager to welcome customers back to his store. But he and his wife aren’t ready yet.

“The safety of our customers and the safety of our family and the safety of our staff are the primary motivators.... We’re going to wait until we’re cleared by the state. And I don’t know of any other business that’s decided to open in Lititz, but we’ll find out tomorrow."

Pennsylvania Ping!

Please ping me with articles of interest.

FReepmail me to be added to the list.

“...improving infection control programs in nursing homes.”

They’re not nursing homes; they’ve been killing fields, especially in NYS.

As of noon today in Lancaster 159/188 deaths were in “care facilities”.

That is 87%....much worse than the PA statewide 67% of the deaths.

Across the mighty Susquehanna York County has had only 20% of its COVID deaths (3/15) occur in nursing “homes”.

I’m not sure if Lancaster should be “yellow” but York should be “green”.

The governor’s metric is 2 consecutive moths with 50 or fewer new infections. Lancaster had 109 over that period. So in effect Gov. Wolf is going to jam up county business people for being ‘9’ over his arbitrary goal. Really?

Yes, really.

All the “metrics” and numbers first issued as “guidance” but quickly mutated into mandates have been arbitrary, capricious, and established with virtually no scientific data or evidence.

6 foot “social distancing”

>5 or > 10 or >25 is a verbotten “large group gathering”

50 new cases per 100,000 popultation.

Only amateur artists paint by numbers.

What does that say about these expert “professionals”?

Has anyone ever applied these absurd standards to the flu? How about car accidents. No driving until accidents decline to X?

There’s a LOT of traffic on the roads, this week, and I see people going into strip mall stores. Big malls are still closed, but life is coming back, as people regain their Freedom & Liberty from Tommie The Commie and “It”.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.