Gov. Wolf, task force urge lawmakers to promote COVID vaccination
New CDC mask guidelines: Vaccinated should mask indoors in certain settings, as should K-12 schools
The CDC is now recommending that vaccinated people wear masks indoors again in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging and that everyone in K-12 schools wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.
HARRISBURG - Gov. Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania's coronavirus task force are asking state lawmakers to urge their constituents to get vaccinated, noting the rapid spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
Wolf and the task force, which includes Democratic and Republican appointees from the House and Senate, asked members of the General Assembly to "use every tool at your disposal, starting now," to promote the COVID-19 vaccines on social media, in printed materials and at local events.
"We are at a pivotal moment in this pandemic — a moment that has already passed in states like Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana — where we can either stand by as COVID evolves into a disease that hospitalizes people at rates rivaling the COVID we knew in 2020, or we can redouble our vaccination efforts and work together to protect the progress we have made, and avoid the consequences of widespread infection," said the letter, released Friday.
New COVID-19 cases have more than tripled over the past two weeks, to an average of about 725 per day, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Hospitalizations have started to rise again, too, up by more than a third over the past 10 days, according to state data.
New cases and hospitalizations are still a fraction of what they were at the height of the pandemic last winter.
The pace of vaccinations, meanwhile, has slowed dramatically to about 12,500 people per day. Nearly 63% of Pennsylvania adults are fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
(Office of Gov. Tom Wolf)
The letter from Wolf and the task force warned that a resurgent virus could wreak havoc on nursing homes, threaten the state's work force and burden hospitals. It urged lawmakers to "talk about our shared goals: protecting ourselves and those we love. Please do this with care, with understanding, and with urgency."
The state Department of Health is also planning a text messaging campaign to encourage more than 250,000 people who skipped their second shot of the two-dose COVID-19 vaccine to follow through and get their second dose.
House Republicans objected to the texting plan, saying Friday it raises serious privacy concerns and that residents did not give permission to be contacted.
"Given this administration’s shoddy track record of protecting Pennsylvanians’ private health and personally identifiable information, questions remain about how this information is being stored, who is facilitating this text messaging program, and what assurances have been provided that this information is being kept secure," said Jason Gottesman, a spokesperson for House Republicans.
A message was sent to the Health Department seeking comment.
GOP lawmakers have criticized the Wolf administration over a data breach involving the company that Pennsylvania initially hired to perform contact tracing in the state. Insight Global was fired in May after company employees compromised the private data of more than 70,000 residents.
Contact tracers identify people who have been exposed to the coronavirus so they can quarantine.
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