By Kara Seymour, Patch Staff
Jul 18, 2020 1:04 pm ET
HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania on Saturday surpassed 100,000 total coronavirus cases since the onset of the pandemic, after 763 additional COVID-19 infections were reported to the state Department of Health. The statewide total now stands at 100,241 cases, with 76 percent of patients recovered.
The state on Saturday also passed 7,000 deaths, after 15 new deaths were reported.
The news comes as state officials this week instituted additional targeted mitigation measures with the hope of curbing a recent rise in cases.
“We have got to act now,” Wolf said during a news conference Wednesday, just before signing an executive order limiting indoor dining capacity and large gatherings.
“During the past week, we have seen an unsettling climb in new COVID-19 cases throughout Pennsylvania,” Wolf said during the mid-week news conference.
The new restrictions were met with opposition from state Republicans, who said they will hurt small businesses and unfairly restrain the freedoms of residents in rural areas.
Here other recent developments connected to the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania:
- State health and education officials on Thursday issued updated guidance for schools as they prepare for the start of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The updated guidance clarifies that students must wear masks at all times during the school day, except when eating, drinking or situated six feet apart. MORE
- Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union is asking state officials to direct public schools to plan for an online start to school if the spread of the coronavirus doesn’t slow by the fall. MORE.
- Gov. Tom Wolf followed through on his threat to withhold federal funding to counties that defied his coronavirus mitigation orders, leaving Lebanon County empty handed as the state distributed $625 million in COVID-19 County Relief block grants. MORE.
- Pennsylvania has made some additional changes to its travel quarantine list, removing one state. MORE.
- Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday signed six bills, including two police reform laws, and vetoed a House Resolution calling for an end to his disaster declaration for the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. MORE.
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