COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in March 2020. As of July 13, 2020, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has confirmed 95,742 cases and 6,911 deaths in the state.
Timeline
March
- On March 6, Governor Tom Wolf reported Pennsylvania's first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Delaware County and in Wayne County. Both cases were related to travel — one to another state within the U.S. and another to Europe.
- On March 9, 4 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 10.
- On March 10, 2 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 12.
- On March 13, Governor Wolf announced that all Pennsylvania schools will be closed for at least two weeks. Additionally, park programs were canceled.
- By March 17, there were 96 cases in the state; more than half of them were in the Philadelphia area with Montgomery County as the highest number.
- On March 18, the department of health reported the state's first death related to the virus, a patient at St. Luke's Fountain Hill campus in Northampton County.
- On March 19, Governor Wolf ordered a statewide closure of all "non-life sustaining businesses," with enforcement of this order going into effect at 12:01 am on Saturday, March 21. The PA Department of Education canceled all statewide assessments including the PSSA testing, Keystone exams, and the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment for the remainder of the 2019–2020 school year.
- On March 21, the department of health announced the state's second death as well as 103 new cases. The second death was in Allegheny County. Rachel Levine, the Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, said during a press conference "A state-wide shelter in place was not out of the question."
- On March 22, 273 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 644. The sixth death occurred in Montgomery County.
- On March 25, a 35-year-old woman in Hanover Township, Luzerne County was arrested for deliberately coughing and spitting on food at a Gerrity's supermarket. She made verbal threats about being infected with COVID-19 and has been charged with two counts of terrorism and two other felonies plus a misdemeanor for attempting to steal a pack of beer. The supermarket had to throw out $35,000 worth of merchandise and has since raised employee pay $1 per hour. The woman is being tested for coronavirus.
- On March 28, Governor Tom Wolf issued a stay-at-home order for Beaver, Butler, Westmoreland, Centre, and Washington Counties, according to a release from Harrisburg. Governor Wolf announced 533 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 2,751. The highest rise in cases was in Philadelphia County.
April
- On April 1, Governor Wolf extended the stay-at-home order across the entire state effective that evening at 8:00 pm.
- On April 3, Governor Wolf asked Pennsylvanians to wear cloth face coverings in public; this became mandatory on April 19. Philadelphia reduced recycling pickup to every two weeks due to staff shortages.
- On April 9, Governor Wolf officially ordered the closing of all Pennsylvania schools through the end of the academic school year. He stated that they will resume all classes through means of Google Classroom and other online classroom tools. He had not yet stated if the Class of 2020 graduations will be postponed or cancelled.
- On April 15, Health Secretary Levine issued an order requiring safety precautions for essential businesses.
- On April 17, Governor Wolf laid out a plan to provide relief for Pennsylvanians, gradually reopen the state, and recover from this situation. The state government used a three-phase color-coded plan to reopen the state. The first and most restrictive phase is the red phase, which includes a stay-at-home order and only allows essential businesses to be open. The second phase of the reopening process is the yellow phase, which calls for aggressive mitigation and allows some businesses to reopen while others must remain closed. The third and least restrictive phase is the green phase, which allows most businesses to be open while following health guidelines.
May
- On May 7, Governor Wolf extended the stay-at-home order until June 4 for counties in the red phase.
- On May 8, 24 counties entered the yellow phase, allowing some businesses to reopen. They are Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango, and Warren.
- On May 15, 13 more counties entered the yellow phase: Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland.
- On May 22, 12 more counties entered the yellow phase: Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming, and York.
- On May 29, eight more counties entered the yellow phase: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Schuylkill. The first 18 counties to enter the green phase were Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango, and Warren.
June
- On June 5, 16 more counties entered the green phase: Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Clinton, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Lycoming, Mercer, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland. The last ten counties to enter the yellow phase were Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia. There are no remaining counties in the red phase.
- On June 12, 12 more counties entered the green phase: Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland, Union, Wayne, Wyoming, and York.
- On June 19, eight more counties entered the green phase: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Luzerne, Monroe, Perry, Pike, and Schuylkill.
- On June 24, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, announced that the state would partner with CVS Health to provide free COVID-19 tests to skilled nursing facilities across the state, to commence June 29.
- On June 26, 12 more counties entered the green phase: Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Susquehanna.
July
- On July 1, Governor Wolf issued a statewide order mandating wearing of face masks in all public spaces in the state.
- On July 3, one final county entered the green phase was Lebanon. There are no remaining counties in the yellow phase.
- On July 15, Governor Wolf imposed new restrictions due to a rise in cases. Restaurants were limited to 25 percent capacity for indoor dining, alcohol can only be served for on-premises consumption when purchased with a meal, telework must be implemented when possible, and indoor gatherings are limited to 25 people.
- On July 24, The Berks County Coroner office in Reading announced an autopsy revealed a local 26-day-old female baby that recently died tested positive for the virus and would investigate the death as a co-sleeping accident. The baby may be the state's youngest death from the virus.
- On July 25, two Lawncrest block parties at night were stopped by local police officers in an effort to stop viral transmission.
Government response
On March 22, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney issued a stay-at-home order for the city, set to take effect the following day at 8:00 am. On Monday the 23rd, Governor Wolf issued additional stay at home orders for seven counties: Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Monroe, and a redundant order for Philadelphia County, to go into effect at 8:00 pm the same day.
- On March 16, the social distancing measures were extended to the entire state, while Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney ordered nonessential businesses and city government to close for two weeks. Starting March 17, SEPTA Regional Rail trains in the Philadelphia area will operate on an enhanced Saturday schedule for two weeks due to reduced ridership and staffing. In addition, SEPTA will offer refunds for unused and partially used passes.
- On March 19, the state's department of education announced that all statewide assessments would be canceled for the remainder of the 2019–2020 school year.
- On March 22, Governor Tom Wolf announced the commonwealth would likely postpone its Democratic and Republican primary elections from April 28 to June 2.
- On March 27, Wolf signed a bill moving the primary elections to June 2.
Impact on sports
In college sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association cancelled all winter and spring tournaments, most notably the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, affecting colleges and universities statewide. On March 16, the National Junior College Athletic Association also canceled the remainder of the winter seasons as well as the spring seasons.
In auto racing, the NASCAR race weekend at Pocono Raceway from June 26–28, which included the first NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader in history, took place as scheduled but without fans in attendance.