Centre County may be among the first regions in the state to begin the gradual process of reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 8, and county commissioners emphasized on Tuesday that the process will be ‘a marathon, not a sprint.’
‘This is going to take several months, if not over a year, to confront this virus here in the county, across the state and across the country. We’ve got many challenges coming up,’ said Board of Commissioners Chair Michael Pipe, noting that primary election day on June 2, Penn State students returning to collecting belongings and again returning for the long-term when in-person classes resume will all present challenges in maintaining social distancing and safety.
Gov. Tom Wolf has indicated that the northwest and northcentral regions are being considered to be the first to move to the yellow phase of reopening, in which some restrictions will stay in place but others will be relaxed and more businesses will be permitted to open.
In the yellow phase, telework must continue where possible and businesses with in-person operations must follow safety orders. Child care can reopen with working and building safety orders. Congregate care and prison restrictions remain in place and schools remain closed. Stay-at-home restrictions will be lifted in favor of aggressive mitigation measures, gatherings of 25 people or more will be prohibited and in-person retail would be allowed, with delivery and curbside pickup preferable. Indoor recreation, health and wellness facilities like gyms and spas and entertainment venues will remain closed. Restaurants and bars must continue delivery or takeout only.
Centers for Disease Control and Department of Health mitigation guidelines will continue to be in place.
Criteria to move to the yellow phase include having fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period.Commissioner Mark Higgins noted that would amount to about 81 cases in two weeks for Centre County
Centre County’s cases have been relatively low in comparison with other counties of similar size, and had for much of the month seen only small growth. On Monday and Tuesday, the county had six cases each day. Were that to continue over 14 days, the county would fall just outside the state criteria.
‘Hopefully we can have everyone continue to socially distance, wear the masks, follow all the protocols so that we can stay under a total of 81 infections over a 14 day period,’ Higgins said.
Other criteria include sufficient testing for people with symptoms and target populations, robust contact tracing capabilities and safeguards for high-risk settings like prisons and nursing home homes.
‘One of the things we’ve been doing is having conversations with health care providers in the area… talking with them about what they’re seeing when it comes to these categories,’ Pipe said. ‘The cases are a more quantifiable things… but these [other] things are going to be a heavier lift. In order for us to get there we’re going to need the Department of Health to be partners with us to be able to achieve the progression of phasing.’
Pipe noted that Mount Nittany Health and Penn State Health have partnered on contact tracing and Geisinger has its own tracing procedure. He suggested the possibility of hiring and training Centre County residents as contact tracers, potentially employing people who are out of work because of business closures. Massachusetts announced it is hiring 1,000 contact tracers and had 15,000 applications in two weeks, Pipe said, and a group of health officials, doctors and epidemiologists on Monday urged Congress to pass a bill to hire 180,000 contract tracers nationwide.
Centre County residents appear to have done a good job with staying home to slow the spread of the virus, Pipe said. Several data companies that track cell phone locations have made publicly available analysis for how well communities are following stay-at-home orders.
Google, Cuebiq and Unacast all found that cell phone movement had significantly decreased in Centre County over the past six weeks, with the county ranking among the best in the state for limiting travel.
Pipe said it will be important for county residents to continue adhering to social distancing, masking and hygiene guidelines as businesses start to reopen in order to continue to slow the spread and allow more operations to resume. Public health, business closures and long-term unemployment are the primary concerns, he said.
‘These are all three things that due to the nature of COVID-19, we can’t do all three at the same time,’ he said. ‘The mitigation efforts and social distancing are important to slow the virus which means we’re not going to have as many businesses open and effectively not as many workers. But then the public health improves and we can start to relax some of those things.’
Commissioner Steve Dershem said because the county is so connected to tourism and travel, especially related to Penn State, it is important to follow safety measures now to get back to business safely as soon as possible.
‘You may or may not agree with the metrics; you may not like the way things are calculated. I have some questions,’ he said. ‘But ultimately what this is about is getting to a point where people are confident in coming back to Centre County, not only to live as students, for instance, but also for tourism. So many folks in our community are relying on not only the tourism but also the educational performance of our major university that we have to do everything we can to get back on track and get out community safe for everybody to live and visit.
‘We really have to do what we can do right now to limit the spread of this virus so we can get back to work.’
While a region can move to a new phase of reopening, it can also move back if case rates begin to escalate. Ultimately, the goal is to get to the green phase, where most restrictions are lifted, but safety guidelines such as distancing and masking remain in place, along with monitoring of public health indicators.
‘The green phase is where we all really want to get to… but that’s really not going back to how it was,’ Pipe said.
He also noted a recent description by Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, following her discussions with governors about reopening.
“They understand the risk, and they talk about this not as turning on a light switch but slowly turning up the dimmer,” she said on Sunday.
‘I think that’s a really good way we can think about how to reopen not only Pennsylvania’s economy but also Centre County’s,’ Pipe said.
Poll Workers Needed
Pennsylvania’s primary election was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was rescheduled for June 2. Pipe and Dershem said that because some experienced poll workers are older and among vulnerable populations, the county expects a need for new volunteers.
Dershem said the elections office is working on a specific number of needed new poll workers, but he expects it to be in the dozens, noting that high school students who had volunteered in the past also won’t be available.
‘We truly do need volunteers from the community to step up right now to provide us manpower to operate our election systems,’ he said. ‘If you’re healthy and able-bodied, it’s a long day but it’s a very gratifying day.’
Residents interested in volunteering can go to centrecountypa.gov/elections to learn more.
Some traditional polling locations — such as schools and personal care facilities — also are likely to be unavailable and new locations will need to be identified.
Pipe said that ideally he would like for all county residents to vote by mail. Applications must be received by May 26 and the deadline to return ballots is 8 p.m. on June 2.
‘We would love it if every ballot that’s cast is before the election, and our poll workers set up shop, nobody comes in because everybody’s voted by mail and they pack up and go home,’ Pipe said. ‘That would be terrific, but we are pragmatists. We understand the practical nature of people still wanting to cast their ballot [in person].
He added that protective kits will be available at all precincts with items such as gloves, sanitizers and wipes. Dershem said that while a large turnout is not expected, social distancing measures will be in place and things likely will move a little slower than normal.
7 Recalled from Furlough
On April 14, commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of full-time or reduced-hours furloughs for 83 employees who had less or no work to do since they began working from home.
Commissioners voted on Tuesday to return seven of those employees to full-time status, at the request of department heads.
County Administrator Margaret Gray said that because of changing workloads, a process was established for department heads or elected officials to request a return from furlough for employees. They were required to provide a justification for why it was necessary.
Four staff members in the controller’s office and one in the treasurer’s office are returning to full-time status from reduced hours. One employee each in emergency communications and tax claims are returning from full-time furlough to regular full-time status.
Pipe said two other departments also have submitted requests to return staff members for furloughs.
The furloughs were put in place through May 15 for non-court staff and May 1 for court-related staff.
At the time, the declaration of judicial emergency that shuttered many court operations was in effect. Since then however, the state courts and Centre County Court of Common Pleas extended those orders to May 31.
Commissioners will meet again on Thursday and will discuss any possible extension of court-related furloughs.
