COVID orders to end May 31

By MEGAN GUZA, JULIA FELTON and DEB ERDLEY

Trib Total Media

Pennsylvania plans to lift its COVID-19 mitigation orders on Memorial Day, and Gov. Tom Wolf said the state’s masking order will be dropped once 70% of Pennsylvanians 18 and older are fully vaccinated.

Mitigation measures that remain in effect until Memorial Day include capacity limits on restaurants, theaters, indoor and outdoor event spaces and other businesses.

As of Tuesday morning, about 32.4% of all Pennsylvania residents were fully vaccinated and about 50% were partially vaccinated, according to data from the Department of Health. The U.S. Census Bureau reports about 20.6% (about 2.6 million) of the state’s residents are under 18. Factoring them out, almost 40% of those 18 and older are considered fully vaccinated.

Around 3.6 million Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated, according to the department. Factoring out the state’s juveniles, there are about 10.2 million adults in the state. A 70% vaccination rate is about 7.14 million.

“We continue to make significant progress in the fight to stop the spread of COVID-19 and as more Pennsylvania adults get vaccinated and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evolves, we can continue to move forward with our reopening efforts,” said Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Alison Beam.

Last week, the department updated its mask mandate to fall in line with the CDC announcement indicating that those who are fully vaccinated can visit mask-free with other fully vaccinated people indoors and unvaccinated people outdoors.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Wolf’s announcements are a testament to the effort residents have put toward reducing the spread of the virus.

“As we continue to get vaccinations into arms, we are nearing 70% of our adult population in this county having at least one shot,” he said. “To know we can go back to normal after Memorial Day is great news.”

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