Washington County declares emergency
By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com
Washington County Commissioners issued a Declaration of Disaster Emergency Tuesday in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic.
The state of emergency was declared at about 4 p.m. after the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported the county’s second confirmed positive case of the virus. No information on the patient was available.
Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan explained that the declaration allows commissioners to make immediate emergency purchases and hold emergency meetings without having to advertise the meetings with 24 hours notice, avoiding a violation of the Sunshine Act.
“We need to be able to make purchases without having to wait weeks,” Vaughan said. “This gives us the flexibility to act quickly.”
The declaration also forced commissioners to move the Board of Commissioners and Salary Board public meeting, originally scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, to 1 p.m. today in the public meeting rooms of Courthouse Square.
Because of health concerns, commissioners are urging people not to attend the meeting, suggesting they view the event on a live-stream from the commissioners’ Facebook page.
Vaughan said a truck carrying a shipment of hand sanitizers to Washington County never arrived because it “just disappeared.”
Also Tuesday, Allegheny County confirmed an additional case of COVID-19, as well as three new presumptive positive cases.
The latest confirmed case, an individual in their 60s who is currently hospitalized, brings the number of confirmed cases in the county to seven, along with three presumptive positive cases.
Allegheny County reported the three presumptive positive cases are all young adults over the age of 18 who are in isolation at home. Two acquired COVID-19 through recent international travel and one picked it up through domestic travel.
The county labeled the cases presumptive, meaning they require confirmation, because they are from a lab that just started testing. That label will be dropped as soon as the lab meets necessary requirements.
The lone Mon Valley is in Clairton, where councilwoman Denise Johnson-Clemmons posted Sunday on social media that a city resident was admitted to Jefferson Hospital with the coronavirus.
According to the DOH, there are 96 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, with Montgomery County, located just outside Philadelphia, leading the state with 32 cases.
