A person walks past the closed Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg on April 10, 2020.
Kate Landis / PA Post
Your morning coronavirus update: GOP state lawmakers move to force Wolf’s hand on reopening some businesses
Members of the House's Republican majority argued that the Wolf administration’s approach has been inconsistent and unfair.
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Mark Scolforo/The Associated Press -
Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press
Kate Landis / PA Post
A person walks past the closed Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg on April 10, 2020.
What you should knowWith our coronavirus coverage, our goal is to equip you with the information you need. Rather than chase every update, we’ll try to keep things in context and focus on helping you make decisions. See all of our stories here.
» Coronavirus facts & FAQ
» Day-by-day look at coronavirus disease cases in Pa.
» It’s time to get serious about social distancing. Here’s how.
(Harrisburg) — A Republican proposal to force the governor to adopt new rules that would allow far more businesses to open during the COVID-19 pandemic moved ahead in the Legislature on Tuesday.
The bill would direct Wolf to develop a system based on guidance for businesses from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and on an advisory memo on the topic sent out late last month by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Wolf closed businesses deemed not essential to sustaining life about a month ago and subsequently set up a review system for those who wanted permission to reopen.
Members of the House’s Republican majority argued that the Wolf administration’s approach has been inconsistent, unfair and difficult to understand. They said there are businesses that can safely operate and should.
Democrats countered that loosening the shutdown, in place for about a month, would cause more infections and may overwhelm the health care system.
Courtesy of Jon Sukonik
Construction stopped on this house in Montgomery County, Pa., following a shutdown order from Gov. Tom Wolf. Sukonik Building Companies LTD was working on the project.
The House voted to send the proposal to the Senate, 107-95, with every Democrat and two Republicans opposed to it.
Wolf said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that he would withhold judgment on reopening legislation until he sees details, but he acknowledged there are differences over the best approach.
In other coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania:
CASES
Pennsylvania passed 25,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and the state Health Department reported 60 new deaths.
The agency said there were 1,146 additional virus cases for a new statewide total of more than 25,300. The death toll climbed to 584 including 10 new fatalities in central Pennsylvania.
Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, said that social distancing measures have succeeded in slowing the rate of transmission, but “now is not the time to become complacent.” Gov. Tom Wolf has closed schools and nonessential businesses indefinitely and ordered people to stay home.
Officials say most of the patients hospitalized are over the age of 65, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients in that age range. There have been no pediatric deaths in Pennsylvania.
Levine has said the state’s true number of virus cases is likely far higher.
Since the first cases were reported in central Pennsylvania on March 13, a total of 3,810 people in the region have tested positive for the virus.
The first coronavirus-related deaths in this region were reported about two weeks later, on March 28. In the 16 days since, a total 75 central Pennsylvania residents have died from COVID-19 or related complications.
Today’s update includes six new deaths in Berks County, two in Lancaster County, and one each in Cumberland and Dauphin counties.
- Adams: 63 cases, including 1 death
- Berks: 1247 cases, including 27 deaths
- Columbia: 125 cases, including 3 deaths
- Cumberland: 122 cases, including 4 deaths
- Dauphin: 249 cases, including 5 deaths
- Franklin: 69 cases
- Juniata: 43 cases
- Lancaster: 865 cases, including 26 deaths
- Lebanon: 328 cases, including 2 deaths
- Mifflin: 16 cases
- Northumberland: 48 cases
- Perry: 17 cases, including 1 death
- Schuylkill: 200 cases, including 2 deaths
- Snyder: 24 cases, including 1 death
- Union: 23 cases
- York: 371 cases, including 3 deaths
A Cumberland County spokesperson said Tuesday that a second staff member at Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Carlisle tested positive for COVID-19. The staffers are quarantined, and no residents have the virus, according to a news release.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
SURGE IN MAIL-IN BALLOT REQUESTS
Julio Cortez / AP Photo
A polling place worker adjusts gloves as she tends to a reception table during the Florida primary election at the First United Methodist Church, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in Jupiter, Fla. As Florida officials try to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the state’s voters headed to the polls to cast ballots in the Democratic presidential primary.
Pennsylvania counties have processed about 283,000 absentee and mail-in ballots for the June primary, and requests from Democrats are three times more common than from Republicans, state elections officials said Tuesday.
The Department of State said 89,000 absentee ballot requests have already been processed, with the June 2 primary still seven weeks away.
During the 2016 primary, 84,000 votes were cast under the absentee ballot system, which is available only to those who offer an acceptable reason they would not be able to vote in person.
Counties have already processed 195,000 requests for mail-in ballots under a state law passed last fall that permits them for any voter who requests one.
Pennsylvania has about 4.1 million registered Democrats and 3.3 million Republicans. Of the absentee and mail-in requests for the primary processed so far, about 209,000 are from Democrats and 73,000 from Republicans.
Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren said remote voting applications jumped after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf issued orders closing schools and businesses not considered essential to sustaining life.
“First of all, the mail-in option is brand new, and now, with the COVID-19 situation, people want to vote at home, and we’re encouraging that,” Murren said. “We really have no way of knowing what this will end up looking like.”
In a Wisconsin statewide judicial election held last week, preliminary results indicated absentee ballots accounted for about seven in 10 of all ballots cast, compared with 12% during a Wisconsin Supreme Court election last year.
Some of Pennsylvania’s most populous counties have begun asking about conducting the June 2 primary election entirely by mail amid fears the pandemic will pose a threat to poll workers and voters.
MISSING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
Emma Lee / WHYY
Cars line up at a drive through coronavirus test station in the parking lot at Citizens Bank Park.
Health providers and laboratories are largely failing to abide by a state requirement to provide data on the race and ethnicity of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 patients, according to Levine.
She said the information is missing from over 60% of the coronavirus case reports submitted to the Department of Health, hampering the state’s ability to accurately gauge the pandemic’s impact on Pennsylvania residents.
The agency used its emergency communications network on Tuesday to remind labs and health providers to submit the demographic data.
Nationally, an Associated Press review of nearly 3,300 COVID-19 deaths found that African-Americans accounted for 42% of the toll, twice their share of the population in the areas covered by the analysis.
OHIO LIQUOR CRACKDOWN
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday said liquor sales in six Ohio counties would be restricted to individuals with valid Ohio ID or proof that they work in Ohio for an essential business.
The governor cited the decision of Pennsylvania to close its liquor stores on March 17, followed by the decision earlier this month by several county health boards in northern West Virginia to limit liquor sales to state residents only, out of fears of an influx of out-of-state residents.
Four of the six counties border Pennsylvania; three border West Virginia.
DeWine said those moves then pushed out-of-state people into Ohio. DeWine called his restriction a “work in progress” and said that if additional counties have a significant influx of customers from out of state, he’ll take additional action.
Sometimes, your mornings are just too busy to catch the news beyond a headline or two. Don’t worry. The Morning Agenda has got your back. Each weekday morning, host Tim Lambert will keep you informed, amused, enlightened and up-to-date on what’s happening in central Pennsylvania and the rest of this great commonwealth.
