Schuylkill County will enter the Green phase of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus reopening plan on June 19.
Of course, there’s that pesky issue of the concurrent House Resolution 836 passed earlier this week by the General Assembly. That move claims the color phases are as “meaningless” as Wolf says the General Assembly is throughout the state’s entire pandemic response.
Schuylkill County Entering Green Phase on June 19
So, if you’re one to follow Wolf’s words (remember, he previously called you cowardly and selfish if you didn’t), then Schuylkill County turns Green on June 19, next Friday, presumably at 12:01 a.m. Why 12:01 a.m.? That doesn’t really make sense either as days begin at midnight in our world.
Also, don’t think for a second that Green phase is anything remotely close to the normal we all enjoyed our entire lives prior to his March Disaster Emergency declaration.
No, there are still plenty of restrictions on activities and especially businesses during the Green phase, which Wolf dubbed the “new normal”.
And it appears Schuylkill County would be trapped in this “new normal” as Wolf says there’s no plan right now for what’s beyond his Green phase.
But, you will be able to get a haircut in the Green phase if you couldn’t find a barber or stylist willing to go along with the General Assembly’s actions earlier this week.
There are numerous other Green phase restrictions that we’ll detail over the weekend for you. Trust us, it’s not “normal” in any way.
The Metrics for Green
Remember when the state released that Healthcare Regions map that they admitted was drawn up in the 1960s? And then the state said they weren’t necessarily going by that? Well, it turns out they kinda were after all.
On the Pennsylvania Coronavirus County Dashboard website, Schuylkill County is still lumped in with the Southeast region. And on that dashboard, you’ll find the metrics used to determine which color phase your county is currently in and when it might enter the next phase of Wolf’s plan.
When you get there, you’ll see that the 50 cases per 100,000 people metric is long gone. So, anyone still tracking that is doing it for no reason whatsoever.
Here’s a look at Schuylkill’s status as of today:
Rather than that confusing metric people tried to calculate, the state went ahead with some new ones. It’s part of their plan to keep moving the goal posts further out on this as the pandemic response labored on and on and on …
Now, to get to Wolf’s Green phase, you needed 2 weeks of stable, decreasing, or low confirmed case counts in the past 2 weeks. We still don’t know when these confirmed cases are from (only they do) but we’ve seen some days were 0 cases were reported from Schuylkill County recently.
The state now believes we’re doing adequate and creepy contact tracing. And our rate of positive cases is less than 10% of the total number of tests being done in the last 2 weeks. Also, our hospitals are not near capacity — they never were.
So, in a week, Schuylkill County can move to Wolf’s Green phase. And you’ll see here that we’re the only county in the Southeast region doing so on June 19.
Of course, this could all change for the better for everyone if the Courts rule in favor of the General Assembly actions earlier this week and allow Pennsylvania to fully reopen by compelling the Governor to sign that proclamation ending his never-ending Disaster Emergency order.
ALSO READ:
- Pennsylvania General Assembly, Governor Contradict on Disaster Emergency Resolution
- The Green Phase is NOT the Goal – Wolf Conditioning for a “New Normal”
- Argall Says Disaster Emergency is Over
- VIDEO: Tom Wolf Addresses Disaster Emergency Resolution
- VIDEO: PA Rep. Diamond Briefing on Ending Disaster Emergency
- Wolf on Mask Requirement for Businesses – “They’re Not Required.”
- Movement Afoot to Impeach Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf
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Linda H
June 12, 2020 at 2:19 pm
As you can see, Tommy Wolf is keeping Lebanon Co in yellow a.k.a. “time out”. We’ve been very bad boys and girls and now the playground bully gets to call the shots. Does not help that we have Taste of Sicily restaurant serving inside, in Wolf’s eyes that makes Lebanon even worse. (I applaud Taste of Sicily!!)
Our only hope is the court system, or a massive sink hole opens up, just where Wolf happens to be a the same time. In the case of the latter, its an act of God, and beyond human control. Now that would be a miracle!
PTFloridians
June 12, 2020 at 10:29 pm
So…after all this tom foolery, we have 26 dead in Schuylkill County, from the Wuhan/China virus. TWENTY SIX.
…in 2017, in Sch. County, we had 47 deaths from the flu/pneumonia.
…in 2017, in Sch. County, we had 45 drug overdose deaths.
…you get the picture…
PTFloridians
June 12, 2020 at 10:50 pm
…and i wonder how many, of the 26, were elderly in nursing facilities…
PTFloridians
June 17, 2020 at 7:37 pm
A new report released by the Independent Restaurant Coalition estimates that 85 percent of small restaurants will be closed by the end of 2020. Those that are able to survive were either lucky enough to have a slush fund or are buoyed by a corporation that shares their profit. Under the current phased approach to reopening, however, independent restaurants are not going to make it.
Even if restaurants returned to normal operations with no regulations immediately, the report says, the damage done by months of closures has already sealed their fate. That damage, coupled with the unknown repercussions of the pandemic, such as consumer confidence, give few restaurants reason to be optimistic.
Despite the advent of the Big Box stores, small mom & pop’s are still the backbone of the American capitalistic system. They are being destroyed.
OPEN UP!