Letter to the Hon. Dr. Rachel Levine, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health - Smucker Questions Wolf Administration's Metric

Letter

Dear Secretary Levine,
I write to seek clarifying information regarding the gating criteria established by the Wolf
Administration and managed by your office to determine the county reopening process throughout
the Commonwealth, in particular the metric of having fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000
population for 14 days consecutive days.
In a recent article published by the Lancaster Online, your department stated that the gating criteria
of 50 new positive COVID-19 cases per every 100,000 residents would determine if a county
would be permitted to move into the first phase of reopening, and that this metric was provided to
you by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The article states: "Levine said the metric is an incidence rate, which describes how quickly a
disease occurs in a population, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC
recommends this as a measure showing "moderate" community spread, she said. This is internal
CDC information, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said."
As the use of 50 new cases per 100,000 population was not reported as gating criteria by any other
state, please provide me with clarification on the determination as to why this criterion was used
and exactly by whom this criterion was recommended. Communication between my office and the
CDC Office of Legislative Affairs revealed that the CDC made no recommendations to your office
on the use of the 50 per 100,000 metric in the context of safely reopening.
As you know, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate shot up to over 15 percent for the month of
April. In Lancaster County, approximately 54,000 individuals have applied for unemployment
benefits--and we know that unemployment figures do not capture all of those who are out of work.
As a result of the closure of non-essential businesses as determined by Governor Wolf, the labor
market entered a deep recession. The length of the shutdown has a direct impact on continued
economic damage that will lead to financial instability for thousands of Pennsylvanian families.
While the Commonwealth has since revised the gating criteria to state that this metric will be
considered but not necessary, businesses have endured months-long shutdowns before the decision
to abandon the metric was reached. I am concerned that Lancaster County has been forced to
remain closed under an unrealistic metric that was not provided for at the direction of the CDC,
despite your claim that it was.
Please provide any additional information you have to shed light on why the Department of Health
felt this was an appropriate measure to be used as gating criteria to move to the next phase of
reopening for non-essential businesses. Please provide a written response by Thursday June 11,
2020.

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