Gov. Wolf offers little detail on when next areas of Pennsylvania could move to yellow phase
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Gov. Tom Wolf on a call with reporters Tuesday remained tight-lipped as to when he might announce which Pennsylvania counties will be next to see pandemic-related restrictions eased.
“There is no schedule,” Wolf said of when he will announce more counties. “That would be arbitrary.”
The governor reiterated what has become a mantra for him and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine: The virus dictates the timeline.
“Ultimately, I’m going to be driven and … all of us need to be driven by what’s best for the people in the region, not what’s expedient,” Wolf said, noting only that another announcement would be “coming soon.”
He said he hopes Southwestern Pennsylvania can move into what has been dubbed the yellow phase “really quickly.” The yellow phase lifts some restrictions put in place to slow the spread of covid-19, including the stay-at-home order.
A number of lawmakers in the Southwest region cried foul on Friday after two dozen counties in the Northwest and North-Central were given the go-ahead to being moving into the yellow phase later this week.
The mostly rural counties saw low case counts, and state officials said that fact combined with low population and population density made them fit to begin the gradual reopening.
Wolf had previously set a metric of fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days for an area to have a chance at fewer restrictions, though he has stressed that many subjective factors go into the decision.