Daily Policy Update

Each day a summary of news and information that has been gathered from community partners and credible news sites will be posted.

Governor:

• “Gov. Wolf: 12 More Counties Going Green on June 12” : https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/gov-wolf-12-more-counties-going-green-on-june-12/
• “Pennsylvania Commissions Jointly Issue Statement Defending our First Amendment Right to Protest and Air Grievances” : https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/pennsylvania-commissions-jointly-issue-statement-defending-our-first-amendment-right-to-protest-and-air-grievances/
• “The Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs Defends Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine and Denounces Transphobia in the Commonwealth” : https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/the-pennsylvania-commission-on-lgbtq-affairs-defends-health-secretary-dr-rachel-levine-and-denounces-transphobia-in-the-commonwealth/
• “Gov. Wolf Signs Domestic Violence Bill, Other Legislation” : https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/gov-wolf-signs-domestic-violence-bill-other-legislation/

State Government:

General COVID resources: https://www.pa.gov/guides/responding-to-COVID-19/

Dept. of Health:

• “Wolf Administration: Long-Term and Congregate Care Restrictions Will Remain in Place to Protect Vulnerable Populations as Pennsylvania Reopens” : https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/Health-Details.aspx?newsid=844
• “Department of Health Provides Update on COVID-19, 443 Positives Bring Statewide Total to 74,385” : https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/Health-Details.aspx?newsid=845
  • Link to Statewide map of testing sites: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Symptoms-Testing.aspx?fbclid=IwAR0q72qATsxBX9zL0KMErYO_OQZutSgVMY1I4fEEa8-3zcHN_7WixZ-VFAY
  • COVID-19 Data: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx
• Lancaster Stats: 3,337 cases. 18,040 negative tests. (According to DOH website- updated today at 12:00pm)
  • # of Deaths: 317 deaths. (updated 11:59 pm on June 4, 2020.)
  • County Population: 543,557
  • Death Rate per 100,000 residents: 58.3
• Daily Press Briefing:
  • Gov. Wolf summary:
    • Today we reached a landmark in our fight against COVID-19, as of 12:01am today every county in PA has moved out of Red into Yellow, and today we also have 34 counties moving from Yellow to Green which means that all businesses will be open. Of course, in the Green phase people still need to take precautions like wearing a mask to make sure there are no new outbreaks. While we reopen PA, with everyone now moving at least to Yellow, we still continue to see a decline in new infections.
    • This is great progress. In addition, at 12:01am on Friday, June 12^th, 12 more counties will move from Yellow to Green: Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland, Union, Wayne, Wyoming and York.
    • I am very proud of our commonwealth to getting to this point in our reopening and I want to take a minute to thank everyone who has assisted us in getting us this far. First, thank you to the healthcare workers, they are heroes, the medical facility staff, and all the folks who have been fighting on the front lines. Thank you too, to our essential workers for keeping us fed, clothed, and housed during this crisis. Third, thank you to the local officials who have had to make very, very tough decisions to keep residents safe. And finally, thank you to every Pennsylvanian for doing your part, big or small, in making sure that we get through this.
    • Keep in mind, in the Red phase, what we were trying to do was buy time to make sure we didn’t overwhelm our healthcare system and allow us to make the improvements we needed to make. So we continue to make these improvements and they are helping our response today, and we want to make sure we continue this as there may be a resurgence as we get into flu season later in the year.
    • As I announced earlier in the week, we surpassed our 2% testing goal in May and on Wednesday alone we completed over 11,500 tests, with our record being over 13,000. We have nearly 400 people right now conducting contact-tracing and the hope is by the end of the summer we have thousands of people able and trained to do contact-tracing. As I announced earlier this week, we partnered with private companies to rapidly establish drive-up testing locations. We have 384 locations throughout the commonwealth, some of which are having soft openings today and each will test up to 50 registered patients 3 days a week. This is just part of our ongoing efforts to increase the number of tests as well as testing locations in every corner of PA. So, to my fellow Pennsylvanians, if you have symptoms of COVID: cough, fever, loss of smell or taste, or abdominal pain please do not hesitate to call your doctor and ask for a test.
    • By testing more Pennsylvanians we can better identify cases of COVID, and by using contact-tracing and isolating we can prevent one case from becoming 3 or 10 or 20. As we continue to bring down the number of new cases and as we increase our testing rate, our new plan of action is transitioning to one of ‘identify, isolate, and eliminate’. We have moved away from this broad brush, blunt instrument of mitigation to really target the effort to contain and get rid of the virus. So thank you to everybody for doing your part, this has been incredibly important.
    • I do want to end on one cautionary note: while the total case count continues to decline throughout PA, Erie county is experiencing a rise in its new case count as well as an increase in its percent positive rate. This is a concern, and is alarming to our epidemiologists who believe that an outbreak is occurring as we speak in that county. I know that Erie residents are eager to move from Yellow to Green, like everyone else they are frustrated, but with these signs of the potential of community spread, we need to contain it before it can move forward, before the virus can move forward and before we can feel comfortable moving into the Green phase. So we are going to provide 6 contact-tracers to Erie’s health dept to help mitigate the spread we are going to give them as much help as possible so they can move forward safely and quickly.
  • Dr. Levine summary: “Stay Calm. Stay Alert. Stay Safe.”
    • As of 12am this morning, we have 443 new cases bringing statewide total to 74,385 Pennsylvanians who have tested positive for COVID in all 67 counties. Tragically, 5,886 deaths have now been attributed to COVID. Statewide, we are estimating that 70% of people that have had COVID have now recovered. We are aware of 19 confirmed cases of the pediatric condition MIS-C and 15 cases remain under investigation. The children impacted range in age from 10 months to 18 years with a median age of 9 years. They are being cared for in our fantastic children’s hospitals in PA.
    • Today I would like to echo Gov. Wolf’s thanks to all Pennsylvanians who have worked so hard to keep us safe, those on the front lines and those who did their part by staying home. Almost overnight, our entire world changed with what seemed like a mysterious, faraway respiratory virus isolated to one part of China quickly wreaked havoc across the globe. When this virus reached our shores, Pennsylvanians rose to the challenge. It has been difficult and so many have lost so much, but we have saved countless lives while we wait for better testing and for the development of a safe and effective vaccine.
    • However, as the Governor was emphasizing our work is not yet done. As our state moves towards reopening, we all need to remember to Stay Alert. If you feel sick, please stay home. If you are experiencing any of the systems associated with COVID please get tested and remember that my mask protects you, your mask protects me, and if we are all wearing masks then the community is protected. As the Governor has said we have bought ourselves time to build up our healthcare capacity and our healthcare system to handle a surge of critical patients and to save lives.
    • Our work continues to protect residents, especially the vulnerable residents of long-term care facilities. Today we issued a notice to these facilities that are moving to the Green phase, to further prevent outbreaks within these vulnerable populations, ongoing restrictions including those on visitation, will remain for 28 days after the respective facility’s county goes to Green. This is an important step to continue to protect those vulnerable residents. I know it is incredibly challenging for families who have loved ones in these facilities and for the residents themselves in these facilities so we will be constantly working to see how we might adjust that in terms of visitation but for now visitation is restricted.
    • We are also adding a new tool to our website today for PA residents to see how their county is doing in terms of the reopening metrics. These metrics include a stable, decreasing, or low case counts over the last 2 weeks; contacts of cases are being traced and monitored; the positivity rate of the test for the virus itself is less than 10% in the last 14 days; the hospital bed usage is 90% or lower for the regional population; and the county has been in Yellow for at least 14 days because of the possible incubation time for the virus. This tool can be found in the PA data section at our website here: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/County-Dashboard.aspx
    • Daily Reminders:
      • If you, or someone you know, needs mental health resources please contact the mental health crisis line by texting “PA” to 741741 or call the statewide support and referral helpline at 1-855-284-2494.
      • If you, or someone you know, is suffering from an addiction you can call the Dept of Drug and Alcohol Programs helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
      • Please remember to wear a mask if you are going somewhere in public and will be around other people.

National News:

Washington Post:

The latest

• The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged to Congress members Thursday that the national coronavirus response is fraying along several edges.
• “We’re very concerned that our public health message isn’t resonating,” Robert R. Redfield said, noting that some states are reopening their economies while local infections are still spreading, and many Americans are ignoring the CDC's advice to wear masks.
• He apologized for the CDC's failure to provide adequate information about the racial background of victims of COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected black and Latino Americans. On the same day, federal health officials announced that testing labs will have to report race and other demographic information beginning in August.
• Redfield also urged crowds protesting police treatment of African Americans to get tested for the virus. “There is a potential, unfortunately, for this to be a seeding event,” he said. When a Democratic lawmaker suggested police stop assisting the virus by spraying demonstrators with chemicals that make them cough, the CDC director said he agreed and would “pass on this comment” to the White House.  Read our story for more details of Redfield's testimony.
• The economy gained 2.5 million jobs in May, surprising economists who had expected the unemployment rate to keep rising. The good news suggests a nationwide rollback of quarantine restrictions may have stopped the economy's free fall, at least for now. But 30 million Americans are still collecting unemployment benefits, and the pandemic that caused the recession is far from over. “You need a lot of months of gains around this level to get back to the kind of jobs totals we used to have,” a Brookings Institution economist told The Post.
• Pressured by parents and President Trump, school districts are devising plans to hold in-person classes in the fall. But many teachers are skeptical they can do so safely, and those with health conditions worry about trusting children to keep the virus away from them.
• Many Americans who considered themselves proud members of the middle class until the pandemic are suddenly experiencing the social stigma of lining up for free food. The Post interviewed an out-of-work nurse, a security guard and others about their first experience with hunger.

Other important news

• Trump is insisting on a Republican National Convention in August that makes no attempt to spread people apart. “We can't do social distancing … I don’t want to be sitting in a place that’s 50 percent empty,” he reportedly told North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who has balked at the demands.
• Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Post, has backed off from the company's refusal to sell a book that argues the pandemic's severity has been exaggerated.
• The Southern hemisphere is about to find out how the coronavirus behaves in winter, and some epidemiologists are worried about a resurgence.

Recurring Resources:

• OneUnitedLancaster.com
  • United Way of Lancaster County has launched a new website, OneUnitedLancaster.com. This digital source of information for our community works in tandem with United Way's 2-1-1 resources to connect people and resources during this time of upheaval.
  • The Asset Map is a county-wide resource for all to utilize. If you need to add/update/delete information please follow the link here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UWMAP20

• Lancaster Chamber:
  • Website updated daily: https://www.lancasterchamber.com/Apps/Pages/coronavirusnews
  • “Moving Forward to Yellow Phase” : https://www.lancasterchamber.com/Apps/Pages/page-slug-92504?formEntryId=21971
  • INFORMATIONAL WEBINARS/TRAINING:
    • PANDEMIC SAFETY MANAGER TRAINING – June 10
      This program is based on the latest science being produced out of the CDC, NIH, NIOSH, FDA and DHS. The focus of the educational session is to provide senior leaders, safety directors, human resource professionals and others responsible for providing safe and healthy workplaces with important science-based information. Participants will receive a certification of completion following the training course.
      REGISTER NOW
    • Workplace Considerations & Compliance
      This webinar featured Steve Matzura and Austin Wolfe of McNees Wallace & Nurick as they discussed workplace safety measures, employer mandates related to building safety, cleaning measures and employee requirements, and OSHA guidance and compliance.
      ACCESS NOW
    • Workplace Considerations: Practical Strategies for your Workplace and Workforce
      Learn more about change management, how to create new norms, develop effective communication strategies, tips & tricks for outfitting your space and workforce and how to navigate new realities and challenges of the workplace in alignment with CDC and State guidelines as Pennsylvania prepares to reopen.
      ACCESS NOW
    • Maintaining A Compliant Workplace & Workforce Under COVID-19 Restrictions
      This webinar will cover steps employers are taking to comply with the Governor's orders and the implications to the workplace and workforce. It will specifically address: 1) what do employers need to do to maintain a safe working environment; 2) what are the OSHA, whistleblower, and workers' compensation considerations; and 3) what are the employees rights from a non-union and union perspective (e.g. protected concerted activity)
      ACCESS NOW

• Local Government:
  • Mayor Danene Sorace is hosting daily briefings on Facebook every night at 5pm
  • The County has a COVID site to keep up to date with their response: https://co.lancaster.pa.us/1296/Coronavirus-Disease-COVID-19

• Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health:
  • Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health COVID-19 Data: online dashboard with COVID-19 testing and patient data. The site is accessible from the LGHealth.org homepage (click “data” in the top red banner), or at the link below. Data is updated each morning.
    • https://www.lancastergeneralhealth.org/news/COVID-19-data-for-lg-health

• WellSpan Health System:
  • WellSpan COVID-19 data dashboard.
    • https://www.wellspan.org/coronavirus/coronavirus-(COVID-19)-data/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=alertbanner-datadashboard&utm_campaign=Coronavirus

• Meals: Hunger Free Lancaster
  • Hunger Free Lancaster County: https://hungerfreelancaster.org/resources/important-resources-during-COVID-19/

• Childcare:
  • Resource to find childcare providers with waivers: https://www.dhs.pa.gov/providers/Providers/Pages/Coronavirus-Child-Care.aspx

PAVOAD:

• Updated coronavirus links
  Daily COVID-19 Report
  Press releases regarding coronavirus
  Community preparedness and procedures materials
  Map with the number of COVID-19 cases
• Reopening phase orders updated
  • Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine have signed amended yellow phase orders to include 10 counties moving to the yellow phase today, June 5. The counties include Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton, Montgomery and Philadelphia. In addition, the governor and the secretary signed amended green phase orders to include 16 counties moving to the green phase today. The counties include Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Clinton, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Lycoming, Mercer, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland.
    Read full article here.
• State parks and forest facility statuses
  • Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn has announced the phased reopening of state parks and forest facilities in southeast and northeast Pennsylvania in line with Governor Tom Wolf’s direction to ensure Pennsylvanians have opportunities to safely enjoy outdoor recreation and help maintain positive physical and mental health. Find open state park and forest facilities by county using the DCNR Reopening Map.
• CDC public settings protection flyer
  • Follow this link to see a flyer for tips to keep workplaces, schools, homes, and commercial establishments safe.