Centre County moved from the COVID-19 red phase to the yellow phase under Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, and county commissioners are reminding people to stay vigilant and be patient as businesses open back up.
“Our area’s lifeblood is Penn State University, and the quicker that we understand that we need to be safe and smart about operating, that will influence Penn State’s ability and decisions moving forward to their operations,” said Commissioner Steven Dershem at the May 5 board meeting. “And getting students back in the fall, and back into football games and things like that, it is hugely important. If we are smart now and use the opportunities that we have to show the state, to show ourselves that we can be safe, and we can operate and we can keep the number of COVID cases down, that is really going to influence the lifeblood of our community moving forward. It would be shocking on so many fronts if Penn State is not operational come fall.”
Centre is one of 24 counties in northwest and north-central Pennsylvania opening up by moving to the yellow designation on May 8, joining Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango and Warren.
In the yellow phase, stay-at-home restrictions will be lifted, but telework must continue where possible, and businesses with in-person operations must follow safety orders. Childcare facilities can open, provided they comply with guidance.
Restrictions for nursing and personal care homes and prisons will remain in place and schools will remain closed for in-person instruction.
In-person retail will be permitted, but curbside and delivery service are preferred. Gatherings of more than 25 people are prohibited.
Indoor recreation and health and wellness facilities such as gyms and spas, hair salons, nail salons, tattoo parlors, tanning salons and massage establishments will remain closed, as will all entertainment venues, such as movie theaters, museums and casinos. Restaurants and bars will continue to be limited to takeout and delivery.
Organized sports — professional or amateur — also are not permitted and playgrounds, carnivals and amusement parks remain closed.
Centre Region Parks and Recreation is updating its operations under the new phase. Facilities including restrooms and most courts and playing fields will open on Monday, but playgrounds and water fountains will remain closed. Pavilions and fields can be used for groups up to 25 people. All programs and events remain canceled. Basketball courts in State College Borough parks also remain closed.
Opening back up with new protocol will require some getting used to, said Commissioner Mark Higgins.
“Be patient. Some of these businesses haven’t been open for seven or eight weeks now and they are not going to be at 100-percent capacity on service levels on day one, or two, or three or even four,” said Higgins. “So we need patience.”
Board Chairman Michael Pipe said the move is a step forward, but reminded those attending and viewing via closed-circuit television that social distancing protocol needs to still be practiced.
“We are encouraging all businesses that are starting to open and get back to work to continue following those social-distancing guidelines,” said Pipe. He encouraged people to patronize local business as they remain open, but said the better the county follows social-distancing standards set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies, the less restriction will be in place.
“The longer we practice those social-distancing techniques, the longer we will stay in the yellow phase and ultimately get to that green phase, so it is so important,” Pipe said.
Dershem said the county is in an enviable position.
“There are a lot of counties that wish they were in our position. We are going to have the opportunity to move to the next phase on Friday and I do believe that it is very important that we have certain guidelines that we need to follow — social distancing, wearing masks, being respectful of this whole process,” said Dershem. “I know there are a lot of folks who are frustrated with it, but the quicker we get through this process, the quicker we can go into the green phase and move ahead.”
Pipe said that most businesses seem interested in opening back up this weekend but, “It remains to be seen what their shopper volume will look like. Hopefully, it is a high volume and there are people going out and doing it in a safe way, that are patient and taking time to support the business. It is a new volume that they are going to be seeing, but I think it is a wait-and-see-what-it-looks-like approach.”
“It is going to be dependent on where they are located geographically and their clientele,” said Higgins. “There are some businesses downtown that mostly serve the locals, so I am sure they are going to be open and I am sure they are going to be fairly busy. I know people have been wanting to get out and return to normal. We are not quite there yet, but there are other businesses downtown where a large fraction of their (traffic) is pretty much the students.”
He said the Downtown Improvement District plans on having a meeting soon to discuss strategies on how they will move forward into the yellow phase.
“I am sure in the areas a little farther out — Bellefonte, Snow Shoe, Penns Valley, Philipsburg — I suspect a good fraction of their business will return fairly quickly,” said Higgins. “But, as for those downtown businesses (supported by students), if they call staff back, it is not going to be the whole staff. So some people will remain unemployed. Just because we moved to yellow does not mean their unemployment benefits terminate.”
“Let’s support our local businesses as they reopen,” said Pipe. “But let’s find ways that we can practice social distancing and masking. We are hopeful. There is some hope at the end of this week, but we should remain very vigilant as we move forward.”
Criteria for reopening include fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 individuals over a two-week period. Centre County has remained well within that metric since the first cases were confirmed in March. Over the last two weeks, the county has had 23 new cases among a population of about 162,000.
Mount Nittany Health, Penn State Health and Geisinger have all had contact-tracing protocols in place. The state Department of Health “will conduct complete case investigation and contact tracing of positive cases to stamp out disease transmission,” as counties begin to go back to work, according to the department’s plan.
Counties also must have enough testing available for people with symptoms and target populations such as those at high risk, health-care workers and first responders.
Wolf’s administration has worked with Carnegie Mellon University on a modeling tool that aims to balance economic and health concerns. It evaluates “risk factors such as reported number of COVID cases per population of an area; ICU and medical/surgical bed capacity; population density; population over age 60; re-opening contact risk, such as the number of workers employed in a currently closed industry sector,” and is used in combination with the health department metrics.
The next phase of reopening would be the green phase, in which remaining businesses would be permitted to open, with all businesses and individuals required to follow CDC and Department of Health guidelines. Monitoring of public health indicators would continue and adjustments could be made, including reverting to yellow or red phases.
Wolf will announce the next group of counties moving to the yellow phase on Friday afternoon.
StateCollege.com editor Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.
