Centre County will not move to the ‘green phase’ next week. Here’s why — and who will
Seventeen Pennsylvania counties are poised to move to the “green phase,” the least-restrictive phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan, on May 29 — but Centre County is not among them.
And that’s not because the county’s coronavirus numbers are increasing.
In fact, according to several officials, Centre County was initially on the list Friday morning to move into the green phase, which allows residents to head to gyms or hairdressers. But two of Centre County’s three commissioners asked the governor’s office to remain in yellow — so Wolf said he complied.
“Local officials in Centre County said they didn’t feel that Centre County was ready to move, so we honored their request that they not move into the green,” he said during a press conference Friday afternoon. “I think they’ve done a phenomenal job ... yet they don’t feel they’re ready. And we were sensitive to their request.”
Commissioners Mike Pipe and Mark Higgins were concerned, by moving to the green phase May 29, the county had the potential to see a rise in asymptomatic infections ahead of the June 2 primary election — making Election Day a possible super-spreader event.
By waiting to move to green until after the primary, Pipe and Higgins told the Centre Daily Times they believed there was a greater chance the county would be able to stay in the green phase. (Some counties might be forced to move from green back to yellow, if their cases increase.)
“We’re going to have 84 locations all across the county staffed by people who are very much willing to work the polls on Election Day for over 14 hours, and we’re going to be seeing over 10,000 people show up to precincts around the county, casting their ballots,” Pipe said. “So we want to keep workers and the people voting safe.”
Pipe pointed out that, among the first wave of counties set to move to the green phase, Centre County would’ve been the largest, by far. According to World Population Review, Centre County’s population (162,805) is nearly double the size of the largest county currently set to move to green — Lawrence County (86,184) — and is at least four times the size of nine of the 17 counties.
The counties that will officially move to green May 29 include Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango and Warren.
Pipe and Higgins said they told the governor’s office they would’ve been fine moving to the green phase June 3, but the governor preferred to keep the Friday start dates uniform. As a result, it is widely believed Centre County will be announced May 29 as now moving to the green phase June 5, after the primary has ended.
Still, fellow commissioner Steve Dershem and state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, publicly criticized the opposition. Both felt Centre County should’ve followed the governor’s recommendation and open May 29 — meaning residents could’ve then resumed dining in restaurants (at a reduced capacity), watching children compete in Little League games and heading to the barber for a haircut.
Now, Centre County residents will be forced to wait at least one week longer.
“I cannot say, strongly enough, how disappointed I am with this decision by the commissioner(s),” Corman said. “I guess when we’re living on a government salary, a couple weeks doesn’t matter. When you’re operating a smaller business such as salons or gyms ... week-to-week is important, and now they’ve been told they have to wait.”
Added Dershem: “There are so many businesses that have been impacted and so many challenges that we’ve endured over the last couple of months that I think people are really looking forward to getting back to some semblance of operation again.”
As of noon Friday, Centre County had 138 total cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. That means the county has had about 13 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, which remains well within the state’s target goal of having 50 such cases or fewer.
That is not the only criteria to measure a county’s success in battling the pandemic. But Centre County has fared well in the other areas, too: hospital capacity, testing availability, percentage of negative tests, population density, travel, age, contact tracing capabilities, etc.
“We’re totally fine with opening up as soon as the primaries are done,” Higgins told the CDT. “And if that’s June 5, that’s June 5. We’d like to open as soon as the primary is finished.”
The green phase eases most restrictions and allows businesses that were previously closed — such as gyms and barbershops — to reopen. But both businesses and individuals are still required to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health.
Centre County was placed under a stay-at-home order March 28 due to the pandemic but saw some relief May 8 when it partially reopened by moving into the yellow phase. Forty-nine counties around the commonwealth remain in the yellow phase, while Wolf announced Friday that eight more counties will move to yellow next Friday: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntington, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Schuylkill.
The remaining 10 counties are expected to move out of the red phase on June 5.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 4:28 PM.
