Governor Tom Wolf today announced that eight more counties will move to the green phase of reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, June 19. These counties include Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Luzerne, Monroe, Perry, Pike, and Schuylkill.
As of June 12th, there are 46 counties in green and 21 in yellow. As counties reopen, Pennsylvania continues to see a steady decline in cases, a positive indicator that the reopening plan is working to balance public health with economic recovery.
According to analysis by the New York Times, new COVID-19 cases are declining in less than half of all U.S. states and territories.
“In Pennsylvania, not only did we flatten the curve, but we are continuing to keep case counts down even as we open our commonwealth,” Gov. Wolf said. “We will continue to take a measured, phased approach to reopening that relies on science and health experts.”
As of June 12, these 21 counties are in the yellow phase: Berks, Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna.
As regions or counties move into the yellow phase, some restrictions on work and social interaction will ease while others, such as closures of schools, gyms, and other indoor recreation centers, hair and nail salons, as well as limitations around large gatherings, remain in place.
After a county transitions to the yellow phase, the commonwealth closely monitors for increased risk, such as significant outbreaks. If overall risk remains mitigated for fourteen days, we will transition the county to the green phase.
The state continues to use risk-based metrics from Carnegie Mellon University and the Department of Health and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency data dashboard.
The state continues to increase testing and ramp up contact-tracing efforts. As of June 11, there are a total of 496 contact tracers, and a total of 2,777 contacts being monitored. The Department of Health received a total of 80,498 test results in the past seven days, an average of 11,500 a day. The 30-day average of test results received is more than 10,500.
There were 3,371 new cases added to investigations for the week of June 4 through 11.
