On Thursday morning the Lycoming County Commissioners along with Director of Administration Matt McDermott and Coroner Charles Kiessling held a conference call with officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The call sought clarity on why Lycoming County remains in the Yellow Phase and not the Green Phase.
Representative Everett was briefly on and had to leave the call for other matters at hand in the PA House.
To the dismay of the Commissioners, none of their questions were really answered.
Commissioner Mirabito made an impassioned plea to receive the data used by the DOH in keeping the county in Yellow.
Based on case and death count data released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Lycoming County is one of five counties in Yellow that have fewer than 200 cases and less than 20 deaths per county since the pandemic began.
Mercer (106/4), Wayne (118/7), Lycoming (161/16), Washington (178/5) and Northumberland (182/3).
Fifteen additional counties have less than 100 cases and remain in or move to Yellow phase tomorrow.
Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Clinton, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin, Somerset, Susquehanna, Union and Wyoming.
Eighteen counties move to the Green Phase tomorrow including Centre County which has metrics of (150/6).
Centre County was referenced by Commissioner Metzger when equating the case for Lycoming County to move to Green.
Centre County Commissioners wanted to remain Yellow until a recent call to the Governor and acceptance of the move to Green.
Could it be the opening of Penn State Football practice and the program being an economic driver that made the decision easier for elected leaders in Harrisburg?
As the longest tenured in office, Commissioner Mussare expressed the lengths local businesses have gone to above and beyond to comply with the orders of the DOH and Governor Wolf.
Coroner Kiessling noted the drug overdose and suicide rates are slightly ahead of last year, however there have been three suicides directly related to the pandemic.
Director McDermott asked a question relating to Emergency Management Agency interaction and economies of scale that are deployable in the crisis and the DOH response was, “we have weekly calls.”
News Talk WMPT reached DOH Press Secretary, Nate Wardle this afternoon, in regard to the daily press briefing and he said, “There is not, no. Dr. Levine will take part in the in-person press conference tomorrow.”
News Talk WMPT and talkwilliamsport.com continues to keep Lycoming County residents informed during the coronavirus pandemic.
