A day after revealing his own COVID-19 diagnosis Gov. Tom Wolf announced new restrictions including a temporary halt on school sports and other extracurricular activities, closing gyms, theaters and casinos, and banning indoor dining at restaurants.
“We all hoped it would not come to this,” Wolf said at a virtual news conference last Thursday. “The current state of the surge in Pennsylvania, though, will not allow us to wait. We need to slow the spread right now in order to save lives. If we don’t, we’re going to be in big trouble.”
The restrictions took effect Saturday and will remain until Jan. 4.
They include an indoor gathering limit of 10, an outdoor gathering limit of 50 and capacity restrictions at retail stores.
The temporary ban on sports includes K-12 public schools, nonpublic schools, private schools and sports at the club, travel, recreational and intramural levels. Wolf said professional and collegiate sports may continue without spectators.
The clampdown is going to hurt many Pennsylvanians, especially small businesses owners and their employees.
Republican lawmakers accused Wolf of abusing his powers. Business groups also oppose the restrictions, with Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry President Gene Barr predicting they’ll result in “economic devastation” and a longer road to recovery for businesses already reeling from the pandemic.
But the new restrictions appear to be unavoidable as state officials seek to respond to the worsening pandemic.
The state is now averaging 10,000 new confirmed cases a day and has a record number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Some hospitals are running out of intensive-care unit beds, and more than a third of hospitals in southern Pennsylvania anticipate staffing shortages, according to the state Department of Health.
Health system executives and front-line medical workers alike said that the COVID situation was increasingly dire and required the state to act.
“As soon as a bed opens, it’s filled again,” Mitchell Davis, a Pittsburgh nurse, said in a statement distributed by the state’s largest union of health care workers. “We need support from the community, support from the government, and support from our employers to be able to fight this and win.”
Pennsylvanians like most other Americans seek to return to normal but tight restrictions are still necessary after weeks of exploding case numbers and sharply rising hospitalizations and deaths.
As the nation awaits the delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine, we can all help slow the spread of the coronavirus by continuing to follow the guidelines outlined by public health officials: Practice social distancing. Wash your hands. And stay home as much as possible.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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