Lancaster County leaders are working to tackle two priorities at once: public health and the economy.
On Wednesday Dr. Michael Ripchinski of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health announced the following statistics on the county's latest COVID-19 cases:
- The county has conducted 7251 tests. 1295 are positive, or rather, around 18%
-The county is seeing 50-80 people testing positive per day
"Make no mistake. The virus is still present in our county and continues to spread," said Dr. Ripchinski. But, he said there is evidence it is slowing and he called that a 'good sign.'
"Your efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our communities are making a real difference. However, patients are continuing to test positive," he said, adding "we've tested less than 1.5% of Lancaster County's population. That's less than 2 in 100 people."
Dr. Ripchinski added Lancaster General's testing showed around 25% of the positive cases in the county are impacting the Hispanic population. Yet, he said, the Hispanic population in Lancaster makes up for approximately 11% of the county's total population.
County leaders called for more testing and contact tracing in order to build a better picture of where the virus is heading and how it is spreading.
"The real thing is there probably isn't going to be widespread testing by the time we need to reopen the economy," said Lancaster County Commissioner Joshua Parsons.
Lancaster city furloughed nearly 70 workers Tuesday as it said the city faces a 'worst case' scenario of $4.7 million of lost revenues due to COVID-19. Lancaster's Mayor added small businesses are feeling some of the greatest impacts from the economic losses.
"Yesterday was not the best day for the city of Lancaster," said Mayor Danene Sorace, who said the city is also working to balance the needs of the economy while not jeopardizing public health. "...Obviously there is a tension between these two objectives. But, we don't have much say at this moment because the virus is in the drivers seat."
Mayor Sorace said the city is asking the state and federal government for aid as it is readying to reopen itself.
"There's no magic wand. There's no magic wand that will immediately make this look like it looked before COVID-19," said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania. Rep. Smucker, however, said, social distancing works. He also expressed the need to keep the focus on social distancing measures while also beginning the conversations over how to rebuild the economy.
"It's not too early to allow some businesses to open up and I hope the Governor will do that in the very near future," said Rep. Smucker. When asked later for specifics on what businesses he believes should be allowed to open, Rep. Smucker said construction and added "I would start to look at businesses maybe with a small workforce, businesses that, any businesses that could still operate while still practicing social distancing I think that we should think about opening right now."
Governor Wolf announced construction projects could start again in Pennsylvania May 8. Lancaster's Mayor said the city is already working on building permits in preparation for that date.
Rep. Smucker said, however, the reopening of businesses statewide should be gradual and he added that it will take time. In Washington D.C., he said the federal coronavirus task force has put out data driven guidelines for a phased approach to reopening the economy. Rep. Smucker said he is also part of a group called 'problem solvers' that released a checklist on what would be needed for the economy to reopen.
Lancaster County said it has engaged a public health emergency advisory to provide administrative, technical, and logistical expertise.