Gov. Tom Wolf expected to announce Friday more counties moving into yellow phase of reopening plan

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Gov. Tom Wolf will announce Friday that more counties can see some of his tightest pandemic restrictions lifted, he said, as counties and lawmakers kept up pressure on him to ease up on his orders.

In a telephone news conference Thursday with reporters, Wolf said he will make his decision on Friday morning. However, he said he has not changed his criteria for deciding which counties can emerge from his stay-at-home order and his order for non-life-sustaining businesses to close.

His health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, echoed that, saying that the administration will continue to count cases in prisons, factories and nursing homes in a county's total.

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That is bad news for counties such as Beaver and Huntingdon that blame much of their outbreak on a single institution, like a prison or nursing home, and remain under the governor's tightest restrictions.

“We are bending the curve, we are having some success and that is reflected in over half the counties that, as of tomorrow, will be open, and there will be more coming,” Wolf told reporters.

Critics, primarily Republicans, contend that Wolf is changing his goals over time, and say his shutdown orders are inflicting undue suffering and are no longer warranted. He has met his original goal of ensuring that hospitals did not become overwhelmed by a surge in extremely ill coronavirus patients, they say.

Instead, they say, Wolf's focus on a broad shutdown is misplaced since nursing homes and personal care homes for the elderly account for two-thirds of the state's more than 4,200 reported coronavirus deaths. In a growing chorus, Republicans and Democrats alike cite the opinions of doctors at health systems in Pennsylvania who say that the economy can safely reopen and co-exist with the virus.

Counties in yellow will all have entered the "Yellow Phase" of reopening by Friday, May 15.

Wolf agreed that Pennsylvania is “in a better place now." But, he said, he still has concerns with the availability of personal protective equipment and hospital capacity in some areas, and he still wants to see a flatter curve.

Wolf allowed 24 counties in northern Pennsylvania last week to emerge from his tightest restrictions and another 13 counties in western Pennsylvania to emerge starting Friday. That leaves another 30 counties, primarily in hard-hit eastern Pennsylvania, that are home to two-thirds of the state's 12.8 million people.

Nine counties that remain under Wolf's tightest restrictions meet one of his criteria of no more than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days. That includes York County, the state's eighth-most populous.

At least seven other Republican-controlled counties, including Beaver, Huntingdon and Lancaster, the state's seventh-most populous, have signaled that they will defy Wolf's orders starting Friday.

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Many of them say Wolf's administration has been opaque in how it is making decisions and, on their own, they will consider at least some of Wolf's restrictions lifted for businesses that can adhere to state or federal health safety guidelines.

With political tensions boiling, Wolf has reached out to county commissioners this week after he suggested Monday that politicians encouraging people to defy his orders and "quit the fight are acting in a most cowardly way.” He also threatened to withhold aid from counties that defy his orders.

In the meantime, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill on a party-line vote that, among other things, strips the state of the authority to close businesses during a disaster emergency. Rather, it forces the state to follow federal guidelines, but also let counties select businesses to remain open.

Wolf will veto it, his office said.

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