Governor Tom Wolf expanded on the criteria and phases that will be implemented to begin re-opening areas of the state during his briefing Wednesday.

He explained that May 8 is the current date for the rollout of a series of openings. During the re-opening process, certain criteria will be used to determine the timeline for the three phases. Currently, the state as a whole is in the red phase, with orders to stay at home except for life-sustaining activities. The next phase will be yellow, with some restrictions lifted. The final phase, which regions will move to on a case-by-case basis, is green.

“Ultimately, the virus will set the timeline, not us,” said Governor Wolf. “There’s not a single tool we will use to determine re-openings. Rather, we will look at several pieces to ensure that our case count is under control and we have the local support to manage the cases and outbreaks. “First, we will use metrics set by the Department of Health. The initial benchmark we are setting is for the population to have an average of less than 50 cases per 100,000 individuals over the course of 14 days in order to return to work,” Wolf said.

Carnegie Mellon University is currently at work on a modeling tool to help determine the best process for re-opening regions of the state, according to Wolf.

“We will use health criteria and the CMU modeling tool to determine phases…As regions hit benchmarks that show that they are ready, they will move to the yellow phase. Specifically, we are monitoring the north central and northwest parts of Pennsylvania, based on the criteria and the model, with the goal of moving them to the yellow phase on May 8,” Wolf explained.

Wolf explained that moving to the yellow phase will mean the lift of some restrictions, including some parts of the business closure order. However, the area would still be required to limit high-risk activities, keeping schools closed and restricting restaurants to curbside pickup or delivery.

Wolf said that during the yellow phase, officials would allow retail to re-open with protections in place for workers and customers, while still preventing large social gatherings. That phase would still mean businesses should prioritize telework when possible.

The green phase would mean lifting the remaining parts of the stay at home orders, according to Wolf, while still adhering to the Department of Health and CDC guidelines, including universal masking if that is a recommendation at that time.

“The more a community commits to staying home and suppressing the case count, the sooner and faster the restrictions can be eased,” Wolf said.

Wolf noted that on Friday, the state is going to reach the 7-week mark, since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Pennsylvania. While state officials had been preparing for weeks for the arrival of COVID-19, Wolf said there are still many uncertainties. That is why the restrictions were put in place in the manner they were and on the timeline they followed. He credits those moves and the cooperation of Pennsylvanians with the fact that the state has faced “less devastation than some of our neighbors.”

“Many people are still getting sick from COVID-19, but the current pace allows every sick patient to get the treatment they need,” Wolf said.

Currently, some moves have already begun to re-open certain businesses. Wolf mentioned the state’s wine and spirit stores, which are re-opening to handle online orders, and the fact that all construction will resume on May 1, next Friday.

Meanwhile, during the comment portion of the briefing, Wolf specifically mentioned Tioga and “as far west as McKean County” as regions they are focusing on for the first stage of the yellow phase May 8.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine gave an update on the current number of cases in the state, sharing that as of midnight Wednesday there are 35,684 cases, 1,896 of which are in health care workers and 5,337 of those are residents of 407 long-term care living centers. Officials also have recorded 1,662 deaths, including 1,325 confirmed deaths and 297 probable deaths using criteria discussed Tuesday.

“Helping Pennsylvanians return to work safely is one of the most important public health challenges that we face. Gov. Wolf has laid out a plan that makes data-driven decisions that are in the best interest of public health. We have to be very careful to balance the needs of our economy with our public health needs, and I believe strongly that this plan does exactly that,” Levine said.