Pennsylvania businesses are facing a Friday deadline for seeking an exemption from Gov. Tom Wolf's shutdown order. Wolf has ordered all "non-life-sustaining" businesses to shutter their physical locations until further notice to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, but established a waiver process for companies that believe they should be exempt. The state has received more than 34,000 waiver requests through Wednesday, approving 5,609 and denying 8,662.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Thursday that more than 1,200 additional people tested positive for the new virus, bringing the total number to over 7,000. There were 16 new deaths for a statewide toll of 90. In Luzerne County, the positive cases increased 102 in the last 24 hours to 384 and another person has died, the total now 5 deaths in Luzerne County. Monroe County has 321 cases and a total of 10 deaths, Wayne County at 17 cases and no deaths, Columbia County has 11 cases, Susquehanna 3, and Wyoming County had it's first positive case.
