In Northeast Pennsylvania, the 17 confirmed cases in Wyoming County, 87 in Wayne County and 72 in Susquehanna County pale in comparison to the substantially higher totals in more populous neighboring counties. But those rural counties have also seen significantly less coronavirus testing, prompting concern that the actual number of cases is higher.
Including natural gas industry workers, Wyoming County has a population of about 30,000 residents, according to Emergency Management Director Gene Dziak. As of Thursday, the state Department of Health reported just 90 negative coronavirus tests in Wyoming County, which is “not a good percentage of tests per capita,” Dziak said.
Under Gov. Tom Wolf’s three-phased approach to reopening parts of the state economy, a region can make the list for consideration to reopen if it averages 50 or fewer new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents per day over a two-week period.
State officials define Northeast Pennsylvania as a 10-county region that includes Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. The state said Wednesday it will consider reopening individual counties that meet the 50-case-per-capita threshold, but walked that back Thursday.
During a media conference call Thursday, Wolf said the state laid out objective criteria to make data-driven decisions about reopening, but noted the benchmarks aren’t “hard and fast rules” and acknowledged some subjective decisions will need to be made as well.
When regions reopen depends on how consistent and widespread testing there is, Wolf said. It also depends on other factors, including the likelihood of people traveling there from other counties or states where the coronavirus problem is more pronounced, he said. That kind of movement could seed new pockets of the virus and prompt a second wave of infections.
Wayne County EMA Director Steven Price also fears coronavirus cases there are low because relatively few people have been tested. Wayne County reported a population of nearly 53,000 people during the 2010 census, but the state reported just 430 negative tests there as of Thursday. That’s about 0.8% of the county’s population.
Under normal circumstances, Price said Wayne County sees an influx of visitors from other counties, states and countries looking to take advantage of Wayne’s 30-plus camps. That season usually starts about May and continues into the summer, and officials fear reopening the county to that traffic could prompt a spike in local coronavirus cases.
When to reopen a county given the threat of the virus isn’t an exact science, Price said. “It’s a lot of taking what we know and applying that and putting it into effect and making educated decisions,” he said.
In Susquehanna County, where the population as of 2010 was 43,356, the state reports just 198 negative test results. Scott Aylesworth, the county’s emergency management coordinator, also fears the number of cases there is likely higher than reported given a lack of testing.
“I would … have some reservations with opening up too quickly, because again we don’t really know an accurate number of people who have actually been infected,” he said. “Especially with the fact that it seems so many people have been infected but don’t show any signs or symptoms.”
A worst-case scenario, Dziak said, would be reopening the counties too quickly and undoing all the progress made during weeks of social distancing. He wants to see more testing in Wyoming County before decisions to ease restrictions are made.
“We’ve got to be careful,” Dziak said, lauding Wyoming County residents for observing social distancing requirements and complying with stay-at-home orders. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should never reopen. That’s not the case. But we should be cautious and careful about how we do this.”
Contact the writer:
jhorvath@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9141; @jhorvathTT on Twitter
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