Here's What Must Happen For Chesco To Reopen Amid Coronavirus

CHESTER COUNTY, PA -- Officials have released detailed information on what must happen in order for the region to begin to reopen, elaborating on the color-coded plan announced by Gov. Wolf earlier this week.

That three-phase reopening plan announced Wednesday breaks down reopening into red, yellow, and green stages, with each color coordinating with different levels of mitigation measures.

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In Chester County, there would need to be a daily average of 53 cases and 262 total over a period of 14 days. The data was released by officials in Montgomery County. It is based on the state's reopening target goal of less than 50 new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days.

Chester is far closer to its goal than its neighbors. The county has seen about 700 new cases over the past 14 days, so they need to cut that in half and a little more.

It seems like a lot, but comparatively, it's really not. A county like Montgomery, for instance, needs to get down to 415 new cases for a 14-day period; they've seen about 1,700 new cases over the last two weeks.

Here's the full chart released by Montgomery County officials:

In order for the southeastern Pennsylvania region — which includes Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Schuylkill counties — to reach the final phase where major mitigation measures for the whole area are lifted, the total number of cases must be down to an average of 187 per day, or a total of 2,622 new cases over a 14-day period.

The Southeastern region is still a ways off from the target: in the last 14 days it has averaged 1,289 new cases per day, and a total of 18,051 cases overall.

Ideally, all of the counties in the region would meet that 50 per 100,000 standard before opening, but Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh expressed optimism that the state would be a little more adaptive.

"They might treat all of these counties together, they might allow some flexibility with in that," she said Friday afternoon, noting that in addition to the raw numbers, the state will also consider things like hospital capacity, contact tracing ability, and the availability of personal protective equipment when deciding if a single county may reopen.

The target data goal is not the only metric to be met before a region can reopen, the governor has said.

Adequate testing must be available, and contact tracing infrastructure must be in place. Plus, counties need to implement safeguards at congregate care settings, including visitor procedures and ensure there is protective gear.

The Philadelphia area is the state's epicenter for the virus, and Gov. Wolf has said that he expects the southeastern region will be reopened last.

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