The following is the latest COVID-19 information from Pennsylvania’s state government as of 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 4.

Governor Wolf

The Wolf administration announced that mitigation orders except masking will be lifted in Pennsylvania on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31 at 12:01 a.m.  The current order requiring Pennsylvanians to wear masks will be lifted when 70 percent of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated.  Face coverings are required to be worn indoors and outdoors for people away from their homes.  Requirements such as testing and reporting ​new cases will remain in place for hospitals and long-term-care facilities.  These updates do not prevent municipalities and school districts from ​continuing and implementing stricter mitigation efforts.  The governor’s Proclamation of Disaster Emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic remains in place.  Learn more from this Wolf administration announcement.

Governor Wolf announced a partnership with Rite Aid Pharmacy to facilitate access to COVID-19 vaccinations for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  People with an intellectual or developmental disability and their caregivers can call DHS’s Office of Developmental Programs vaccination call center at 1-800-424-4345 to request a COVID-19 vaccine appointment for themselves and/or their caregivers.  The call center will give Rite Aid the names and locations of individuals who need to be vaccinated and Rite Aid will contact callers to schedule vaccinations at a Rite Aid location near the caller.  Learn more about how this process will work and who is eligible for vaccinations using it in this Wolf administration news release.

Department of Health

The Department of Health has established a new walk-in COVID-19 testing center in Luzerne County and is moving its current Centre County facility to a new location.  Find further information about hours and locations in this Department of Health news release.

Department of Health – by the numbers

• The daily number of new COVID-19 cases, while still very high, is down from where it was a week ago.
• The number of COVID-19 deaths, which had been declining even amid rising case counts, has risen to a higher level in recent weeks but is still nowhere near what it was last spring.
• For the week from April 23 through April 29 the state’s overall COVID-19 test positivity rate was 7.6 percent, down from 8.6 last week and 9.6 percent the week before.
• The number of Pennsylvanians hospitalized with COVID-19 and in hospital ICUs because of COVID-19 has declined over the past two weeks; the number on ventilators is falling but more slowly.
• Nearly 3.6 million Pennsylvanians have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.  Another 525,000 Philadelphians have now been fully vaccinated as well, the city’s Department of Public Health reports.

Around the State

• Reflecting a challenge arising throughout the country, growing numbers of Lehigh Valley residents are skipping their second COVID-19 shots, the Allentown Morning Call reports.
• Philadelphia will be easing some of its restaurant and other indoor activity limits beginning on May 7, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• The Inquirer also reports that beginning Wednesday, May 5, all clinics operated by Montgomery County will vaccinate people without appointments.
• Tuesday is the last day to get a first COVID-19 vaccine at a FEMA-operated vaccination center in Philadelphia.  The centers will spend the next three weeks giving only second vaccines before ending their Philadelphia operations.  6 ABC tells the story.