PENNSYLVANIA, USA — One week from today, the statewide restrictions announced at the beginning of December are set to lift. The big question many people have: Will it actually happen? Could it happen sooner than that to give restaurants a chance to cash in on the busiest day of the year?
"We're not going to be changing our mitigation orders," responded Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. "It is critically important for people during the holiday weeks to continue their mitigation efforts and to continue to avoid large and small gatherings," she added.
What about January 4th?
Flashback to December 10, Governor Wolf announced new mitigation efforts putting the state on pause through this upcoming Monday.
"We will let you know," said Dr. Levine.
The health secretary says her office will be discussing the possibility with the governor's and making a recommendation sometime this week. What about the data being used to make that decision?
"We are looking at the same type of data that we have looked at throughout the pandemic," responded Dr. Levine.
Dr. Levine says that includes the number of new cases as well as the incident rate or number of new cases per 100,000.
"We look at that statewide, and we look at it in regions and in counties, and we look at the percent positive rate, and we discuss all that data, and the governor will make his decision," affirmed Dr. Levine.
For background, the Pennsylvania Department of Health recorded 613,804 total cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania as of Monday.
Dr. Levine said there was 76 new deaths statewide, bringing the statewide total to 15,086. The percent positivity for the week of December 18 through December 24 stood at 15.1% which is down from 15.82% the week prior.
"We want to make sure the current plateau and maybe even decrease we're seeing continues into the new year," said Dr. Levine.
Many restaurant owners hope officials do not make the call last minute. If they buy food in anticipation of Monday and the restrictions are extended too late, they say they will lose even more money.
You can read about the restrictions here.
