Twenty-six more Pennsylvania counties came out of the tightest stay-at-home order phase established by Gov. Tom Wolf. Starting Friday, eight counties: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Schuylkill are seeing Wolf’s stay-at-home order lifted and now they are moving to the yellow phase.
Also Friday, 18 mostly rural counties across northern Pennsylvania that are home to about 850,000 residents are moving to the green phase, the first counties to do so. That includes Centre County, the home of Penn State’s main campus.
This movement leaves nearly 6 million people in southeastern Pennsylvania under Wolf’s tightest orders, including a stay-at-home order that is part of Wolf’s so-called “red” phase.
More than 70,000 Pennsylvanians have been infected with the coronavirus, according to state Health Department figures, and about 5,400 have died from it. Meanwhile, more than 2.3 million people in Pennsylvania, including self-employed and gig workers, have filed for unemployment since mid-March, when Wolf’s shutdown orders began taking effect.
You can read: More Pennsylvania counties move to the yellow phase
In the green phase, overnight camps and organized youth sports can operate, while restaurants and bars, salons and barber shops, gyms, theaters, malls and casinos can all open at 50% capacity. Other businesses serving the public in a building or defined area can only operate at up to 75% capacity.
People will still be asked to wear masks in public and businesses must enforce social distancing requirements, while concerts, sporting events and other large gatherings are restricted to under 250 people.
Wolf said next Friday, he is moving the remaining “red” counties Philadelphia, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton to yellow.