During the Wednesday press availability Todd Bartley of News Talk WMPT was in attendance at the PEMA building in Harrisburg and posed a question to the Secretary of Health regarding what life after the Green Phase will look like and what thresholds will be used in determining that status.
QUESTION: Secretary, you mentioned the normal after the Green phase, what does that look like? What metrics or thresholds will need to be achieved and will scorecard coming out on Friday reflect that?
“Well the scorecard will be coming out what counties need to from yellow to green.
The new normal is continue and that means wearing masks.
We are going to want people to wear masks for the foreseeable future, when they go outside and going to encounter people.
We want people to wash their hands really well and pay attention to that for the foreseeable future.
We want people to use hand sanitizer liberally for the foreseeable future.
We want people as much as possible to continue to practice social distancing for the foreseeable future.
So that’s what the Governor means by the new normal as we were saying before, COVID-19 is not gone and we do not have anywhere near herd immunity really anywhere in the world.
There have been some surveillance testing using antibodies.
There’s some questions about antibody tests and looking at antibody levels and there is no place in the world that has herd immunity.
We’re going to need to continue to be vigilant about the risk of COVID-19 for the foreseeable future; really until there is a safe and effective vaccine that can be distributed.”
QUESTION: As a follow-up, is the vaccine a cornerstone of what you’re looking for as a threshold?
Secretary Levine added, “Yes. So, the way to get through this without an enormous number of cases and loss of life is through a safe and effective vaccine and I know the federal government is working really hard on promoting that.”
On Friday, it is anticipated Governor Wolf will join Secretary Levine for a press availability and News Talk WMPT will once again be in attendance at the PEMA building in Harrisburg covering the event.
