LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Lancaster County has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Central Pennsylvania. It also has the highest population, and officials say the county is testing more people for the virus than some of its neighboring counties.
Leaders believe the curve is flattening, and they want to lay out a plan to reopen the county's economy. They say they have questions and demands for the governor's office before that can happen.
”People are getting desperate, and they're not getting any hope from this governor or this administration,” said Commissioner Josh Parsons.
With concerns over the state of the local economy growing, Parsons is demanding some answers from the Wolf Administration. He believes the office needs to be more transparent with Pennsylvanians.
“The first question is: If it's okay to stand shoulder to shoulder at Lowe’s or other big box doors, why is it not okay for us to reopen some of our local mom and pop businesses in Lancaster County? Why is the state withholding information on who got business waivers? Why not release all that information? It's not going to get better with time,” he said.
“I do appreciate that the governor has a difficult job to do but would stress the importance of sharing quantifiable data that led him to not only include Lancaster in the southeast region [of the state] but also the data-driven reason to use 50 cases for 100,000 people as the chief metric for reopening,” said Congressman Lloyd Smucker, who represents York and Lancaster Counties.
Reopening the economy is the main subject every week at the county's news conference but exactly how and when remains up in the air.
“My concern right now is that we open the economy then it closes again,” said Commissioner Craig Lehman. “We open the economy, and it closes again because we don't have the public health tools in place that we need, and two of the main tools that we need right now is contact tracing and increased testing.”
Leaders echoed Lehman’s message - a majority called for increased COVID-19 testing of healthcare workers and asymptomatic patients and increased contact tracing to pinpoint the people who have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
“Lancaster, I desperately want to reopen,” said Lancaster City Mayor Danene Sorace. “I want to push the number of COVID-19 infections down. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders have only gotten us so far. We need more tools in the proverbial toolbox.”