Beaver County Going To Green Reopening Phase

BEAVER COUNTY, PA — Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday that 12 additional counties will move to the state's green reopening phase on June 12. Among them is Beaver County, the only remaining county in southwestern Pennsylvania still in the yellow phase.

Joining Beaver in green next week are Adams, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland, Union, Wayne, Wyoming and York.

“As of one minute after midnight this morning, every county in Pennsylvania has moved out of the red phase,” Wolf said in a release. “And, at 12:01 a.m. Friday, June 12, 12 more counties will move from the yellow into the green phase.”

State Rep. Rob Matzie, whose district includes a portion of Beaver County, said he was disappointed the county didn't go green this week as its numbers improved and all surrounding counties received the go-ahead.

"However, with no counties going from yellow to green after at least two weeks, it wasn’t a
total surprise," he said.

“I believe the public and our businesses are positioned to accelerate our recovery. We will continue
to utilize necessary safeguards to protect ourselves and those we may be in contact with under guidelines. "

It's believed Beaver lagged behind other counties in the region because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak at the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, the Beaver County assisted living facility where at least 60 people died of COVID-19. The situation there was so dire that U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb has asked the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to probe the competence and performance of the center's management.

Overall as of Friday, there have been 599 coronavirus cases and 74 deaths in the county, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Wolf's announcement came as 443 additional positive cases of COVID-19 were reported Friday. The statewide case total is now at 74,385. Also Friday,69 new deaths were reported, bringing the statewide death toll to 5,886.

There have been 15,929 cases of COVID-19 among residents of long-term and personal care homes. Of the state's total deaths, 4,077 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.