12 more counties will move to ‘yellow’ phase

Strictest coronavirus measures still in place for southeast

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Kate Landis

People wait outside Esaan Thai Restaurant in York, Pa.. York County is one of 12 that will see some coronavirus restrictions lifted on Friday, May 22.

Kate Landis

People wait outside Esaan Thai Restaurant in York, Pa.. York County is one of 12 that will see some coronavirus restrictions lifted on Friday, May 22. (Kate Landis / PA Post)

The mighty Susquehanna River divides York and Lancaster counties — and that river is one reason why York was the temporary home of the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War. The idea being that the river would make it harder for British forces to attack.

Now, that river represents the divide between York and Lancaster counties.

York will see some coronavirus restrictions eased this coming Friday, along with 11 other counties. Lancaster, meanwhile, remains in the red phase — meaning most retail businesses must stay closed and people are supposed to leave their homes only for a compelling reason, such as work, exercise and important errands.

Here’s some coverage to help you understand what it means for Lancaster and four other south-central Pa. counties staying in the red for now.

• Franklin: It’s one of two counties west of York  that will stay in the red phase. WHYY’s Laura Benshoff took a deep look at the county that leans Republican but has also saw a dramatic spike in coronavirus cases. She spoke with Rodrigo Ortiz, who is a member of a statewide grassroots advocacy group run for Latinx immigrants, among others.

• Huntingdon: This is the other county west of York that will stay in red. It is home to a state prison where, earlier this week, the prison reported that 136 inmates and 38 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.

• Lebanon: I covered a meeting yesterday where two Republican commissioners voted for  a resolution declaring that the county is making the switch from red to yellow on its own. The order is only binding for county offices, not for private businesses. (Also, during the three-hour or so meeting, one of the members of the public attending via computer intentionally misgendered Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. It was an ugly moment —  similar to one that Levine had to deal with earlier this week. “It’s really insulting,” she told a KDKA Radio Talk show host, who repeatedly referred to her as “sir.”.)

• Lancaster: LNP has photos from around the county, as commissioners — without taking any official action — encouraged business owners to reopen without the governor’s permission. LNP also reported that while many businesses wanted to reopen Friday, many couldn’t.

• Dauphin: PennLive explores why Wolf didn’t add it to the list of counties that will shift to the yellow phase next Friday. Health Secretary Levine says the number of cases there went up somewhat recently, and the county still has “significant rates of infection, as well as evidence of community transmission and spread of COVID-19.” Republican commissioners aren’t happy that Dauphin was left off, but they recently backed off plans to declare themselves in yellow on their own.

About the counties making the switch to yellow on May 22:

• Six are in south-central Pennsylvania: York, Adams, Cumberland, Perry, Juniata and Mifflin

• One is in the southwest: Beaver

• Five are in the north-central/northeast: Columbia, Carbon, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Wayne

See also this great Katie Meyer story: Pa. counties push to reopen with little power to protect businesses ‘caught in the middle’

Best of the rest

Kate Landis / WITF

Demonstrators gather outside the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. on May 15, 2020. (PA Post / Kate Landis)

• Another ReOpen rally in Harrisburg: About 2,000 people attended, the York Daily Record reports. “I’m glad you stormed the barricades because this is your land,” state Sen. Mike Regan, R-York, said. PennLive also has coverage. WITF’s Brett Sholtis was also on the scene. He had lots of good coverage but also this personal note. “I wore this KN95 mask just shy of two hours and man it SUCKS. I have so much respect for the health care workers who wear these masks for 8-16 hours a day while they risk their health to help others.” Kate Landis sent back these photos from the rally.

• Because this newsletter is called The Context: A recent poll found that 72 percent of adults in Pennsylvania approve of how Wolf has handled the coronavirus pandemic.

• When the State Stopped: WITF Morning Edition host Tim Lambert and StateImpact Pennsylvania reporter Rachel McDevitt narrate this deep audio lookback, retracing how the coronavirus pandemic unfolded in Pennsylvania. It sounds really, really, really good. I got a chill listening to Dr. Cynthia Whitener, talking on March 9, about how she was uncomfortable to see so more than 60 people gathered in one place to discuss safety precautions.

• ‘They put me in solitary for having oranges’: PA Post reporter Joseph Darius Jaafari tells the story of a Muslin inmate at a Franklin County Prison, who filed a lawsuit in January, alleging that corrections officers prevented him from properly observing Ramandan. “Those grievances allege that corrections officers failed to deliver food during non-fasting hours, put him in solitary confinement for trying to keep oranges in his cell, and denied all Muslim inmates access to their preferred versions of the Qu’ran, Islam’s holy text,” Joseph writes.

Further reading:

• NYT’s The Daily: Reopening, Warily

• WESA: PHOTOS: Life On Allegheny County’s First Day In Yellow

• WLVR: Wearing A Mask Was A Political Decision For People Attending Trump’s Arrival In The Lehigh Valley

• The Philadelphia Inquirer: In Pa. visit, Trump ties coronavirus fight to U.S. factory recovery dreams

• Post-Gazette: Pitt’s Hickton tapped as top aide to Congressional panel overseeing COVID-19 money

• StatNews: Under an ‘America First’ president, will the U.S. corner the market on Covid-19 vaccine?

• The Washington Post: Trump sets goal of hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses by January, but scientists doubt it

• Slate: Tracking the 1918 flu through my great-grandfather’s letters