She said the state wants to avoid a secondary crisis because of a delay in vaccinations.
"These are very real threats. Last year, during the measles outbreak of 2019, we saw the most cases of measles in the United States in over a decade,” she explained.
With several counties moving from the red phase to the yellow phase, officials are keeping a close eye on what happens in these areas as part of the state's slow, measured reopening process.
"There have not been specific concerning data spikes, but the average incubation of the virus is five days, but it can be up to 14 days,” she said.
When asked about the process of administering a coronavirus vaccine to everyone in the state when one becomes available, she said it will “be a challenge.”
“It'll be something that we'll need to work on when that vaccine is available and we're going to be working on that now,” she said.
Pennsylvania health officials reported 938 new coronavirus cases Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 59,636. With 44 deaths reported overnight, the total number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the state is 4,218.
Repening Philadelphia-area counties
In an interview with KYW Newsradio, Gov. Tom Wolf said he won’t put a timetable on reopening counties in the Philadelphia region.
“There’s no way that you can sort of say, OK we’re gonna have — let me pick a date we’re gonna be there,” he said.
As to the criticism from closed small businesses, including the ones near open big box stores selling similar things, Wolf said there is no preference given to any business based on size.
Suburban county leaders warn now is not time to relax
“I don’t want anyone to think that just because our numbers are down that we’re over this wave right now,” he said.
He’s joined by officials across the region, who say the metrics are trending in the right direction because of social distancing measures.
Bucks County officials say they’re in full cooperation with the other southeastern counties and have not asked to be considered separately. But Commissioner Diane Marseglia said they have had conversations about possibly leading the way when restrictions begin being relaxed.
"We’ve kind of asked a couple times to let Bucks County be the testing site mostly because we’re the only county around here that’s doing the contact tracing. It’s never stopped here,” she said.
Related
Chester County health director Dr. Jeanne Casner said there are several metrics they’re watching to determine when it’s safe to start relaxing restrictions, including availability of hospital beds, personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, and the percentage of tests coming back positive.
“Unfortunately, there’s no one holy grail metric that can really tell you our progress and readiness, we kind of have to look across lots of them,” she said.
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