Washington County Hopes To Be On List To Reopen Soon

April 29, 2020 2:27 am

Washington County officials say there are businesses in that area that are ready to safely re-open, but they are following Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders — which seem to be ever-changing. “It has been a challenge to try to know which course of actions to take in Washington County next because the info continues to change,” said Diana Irey Vaughan, chairman of the board of Commissioners. On Tuesday, Wolf backed off the regional concept to re-open parts of the state. “We had put out a map in terms of our health care regions, but the governor has said that we are not going to be beholden to any specific map or any specific scheme,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, Pa. secretary of health. Wolf said he will consider reopening individual counties. Washington County is hoping to be a part of that plan. There are 109 COVID-19 cases and two deaths here. Wolf said he will be as objective as possible in evaluating the data and consider areas where hospitals have not been overwhelmed. There are some counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania with extremely low COVID-19 numbers and no deaths.