Chester County Commissioners: We’re Ready for Yellow on June 4. Gov. Wolf, Let Us Prove It.

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Image via the Chester County Planning Commission.

A statement from the Chester County Board of Commissioners:

How and when do we relax restrictions in Chester County in light of COVID-19? This is a question that drives us constantly, and that is the foundation for our daily (and often nightly) meetings and conversations. We continue to seek the answer to this question in our talks with regional partners, the Governor’s Office, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and Chester County’s business leaders and employers.

The reality is we are close, but we are not there quite yet. We need to see a bit more of a decline in the number of new positive cases we see each day, and we need to increase access to testing.

The Governor has established a complicated set of metrics to determine when a county or region can move to “yellow.” One metric that has been the focus of many is “50 new cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period.” Honestly, we don’t think this is a very good metric. At nearly 525,000 people, Chester County has a population density that makes achieving this number very difficult. We have been fighting hard to use metrics that make better sense, given our demographics.

There are other metrics that the Governor is considering. Things like the ability to do contact tracing – which our Health Department did from the moment we confirmed our first positive coronavirus case, and which can be ramped up should it be needed. And things like access to testing – which we are rapidly building, including our action as the only county in PA to undertake antibody testing.

Many people in Chester County say we should re-open now because the overwhelming majority of our deaths are related to long-term care facilities. While this is true, the overall number of daily new positive cases are not related to long-term care facilities. The overall number of daily new positive cases are related to community transmission.

Back to the question that drives us: How and when do we relax restrictions in Chester County?

We are addressing the “how,” through the work of our COVID-19 Business Task Force, and will have practical information about this for all of our businesses, organizations, and residents in the coming days. Including a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate website that will be a trusted resource, with input from county business leaders on how we move forward economically. And for those who may be concerned, how we move forward safely.

But the “when?”

Chester County’s data indicates that we should be able to safely move to the yellow phase on June 4, and that is what we are strongly urging the Governor to agree to. Moving to yellow is really a cautious step forward. This date gives us sufficient time to expand access to testing and the time needed to see a steadier pace of daily new cases. This date also gives us time to make ready our businesses and organizations so that our residents – their customers – can be confident that they will be safe. Most importantly, we have the support of our own Chester County Health Department in aiming for June 4.

COVID-19 hasn’t just impacted our physical health. The domino effect has touched our financial health and our emotional health and we have called upon all county resources to help as much as we can for residents and businesses alike. Resources like food distribution, mental health services, the Main Street Preservation Grant program. Even our Adopt a healthcare facility program, with churches and community groups providing moral support and acts of kindness for long-term care facility staff and residents.

We also recognize that you have been doing your part. You have followed the guidelines and have stayed home. You have supported small businesses and local restaurants that continue to operate under restrictions. You have supported essential workers in their tireless fight against this invisible enemy. And for all of this, we thank you.

Now we ask you to do just a bit more. Please stick with us and give us the time to June 4. Please support us as we continue to appeal to the Governor about our thought-out, data-driven reasons for naming June 4 as the date to relax restrictions in Chester County. Because the other reality is, we truly do not have the power to decide when to move to “yellow,” the Governor does. And if we go against the Governor, it could cripple many of Chester County’s businesses through state licensing restrictions. That factor weighs heavily upon us too.

Relaxed restrictions – yellow phase – on June 4. We know Chester County will be ready by then. Gov. Wolf, let us prove it.

Chester County Commissioners: Marian Moskowitz, Josh Maxwell, Michelle Kichline

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