UPDATED: 3:55 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In a rare nighttime address on Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf laid out what it will take to take to get through the coronavirus pandemic.
He says there are three stages.
"The transitional phase, when we start to reopen our world, our economy and our lives, will depend on more and better testing. We need tests that can tell us when we are sick, and we need tests that can tell us when we are immune," Wolf said.
"Dr. (Anthony) Fauci has told us that we are only a week or so away from a roll-out of an effective antibody test that will be able to tell us if we have developed an immunity to the COVID-19 virus."
Tonight I want to thank Pennsylvanians for all the sacrifices they've made during the #COVID19 pandemic.Our commonwealth is made up of great people who are willing to step up to help a neighbor in need. It's truly an honor to stand with you all. pic.twitter.com/PU0LzlZsRf
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) April 13, 2020The final stage is getting back to our regular lives. To get there, the governor said we all must continue to stay home and keep our distance. Wolf said we can't lose hope.
Case count
The Health Department said Tuesday that 60 deaths of people with COVID-19 were reported over the prior day, raising the state's running total to 584. There were 1,146 new cases of infection, for a statewide total of more than 25,000.
The number of new deaths represents a spike from recent days — there were just 17 on Monday and 13 on Sunday. Officials have cautioned that uneven reporting over weekends can result in artificially low totals.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
Mail-in, absentee ballot applications
Pennsylvania counties have processed about 283,000 absentee and mail-in ballots for the June primary, and requests from Democrats are three times more common than from Republicans, state elections officials said Tuesday.
The Department of State said 89,000 absentee ballot requests have already been processed, with the June 2 primary still seven weeks away.
During the 2016 primary, 84,000 votes were cast under the absentee ballot system, which is available only to those who offer an acceptable reason they would not be able to vote in person.
Counties have already processed 195,000 requests for mail-in ballots under a state law passed last fall that permits them for any voter who requests one.
Pennsylvania has about 4.1 million registered Democrats and 3.3 million Republicans. Of the absentee and mail-in requests for the primary processed so far, about 209,000 are from Democrats and 73,000 from Republicans.
Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren said remote voting applications jumped after Wolf issued orders closing schools and businesses not considered essential to sustaining life.
"First of all, the mail-in option is brand new, and now, with the COVID-19 situation, people want to vote at home, and we're encouraging that," Murren said. "We really have no way of knowing what this will end up looking like."
In a Wisconsin statewide judicial election held last week, preliminary results indicated absentee ballots accounted for about seven in 10 of all ballots cast, compared with 12% during a Wisconsin Supreme Court election last year.
Some of Pennsylvania's most populous counties have begun asking about conducting the June 2 primary election entirely by mail amid fears the pandemic will pose a threat to poll workers and voters.
Missing demographic data
Health providers and laboratories are largely failing to abide by a state requirement to provide data on the race and ethnicity of Pennsylvania's COVID-19 patients, according to the state's health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine.
She said the information is missing from over 60% of the coronavirus case reports submitted to the Department of Health, hampering the state's ability to accurately gauge the pandemic's impact on Pennsylvania residents.
The agency used its emergency communications network on Tuesday to remind labs and health providers to submit the demographic data.
Nationally, an Associated Press review of nearly 3,300 COVID-19 deaths found that African-Americans accounted for 42% of the toll, twice their share of the population in the areas covered by the analysis.
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KYW Newsradio's Andrew Kramer, as well as the Associated Press, contributed to this report.
