Pennsylvania

• 1,127 confirmed cases, 11,193 tested negative, Deaths 11

Cases by county in the 10-county region per Pennsylvania Department of Health
* case count last updated at 12:00 p.m. on 3/25/2020

State Updates

• Governor Wolf announced today that new funding is available to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19, through a new program under the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority’s (PIDA) Small Business First Fund. The program is called the COVID-19 Working Capital Access Program (CWCA). The Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) recently authorized the transfer of $40 million to the Small Business First Fund for CWCA. PIDA authorized making $60 million available to provide loans of $100,000 or less to for-profit businesses with 100 or fewer full-time employees. Funds are expected to become available this week.
• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today canceled the upcoming oral argument session scheduled in Pittsburgh from April 21 through 23. Cases scheduled for argument during that session will be decided on briefs previously submitted.
• The PA House sent SB 422, a bill to move the state’s April 28 primary election to June 2, to the PA Senate today with a unanimous vote of 198-0. As of 4 pm this afternoon the bill was in Senate Rules and Executive Nominations for consideration and likely concurrence.
• The PA House and Senate both unanimously voted through SB 751. The bill contains measures to address emergency School Code changes to address various education concerns that have arisen during the COVID-19 crisis. The legislation would address items such as:
  • • Elimination of the 180-day instruction requirement on all public and non-public schools
    • Allowing the state Education Secretary to increase the number of allowable flexible instruction days and waive timeline regarding those days
    • Ensuring school districts make a “good faith effort” to develop a plan to offer continuing education during the closure of schools
    • Having the plans be developed locally by each district with guidance from the state Education Department and technical assistance from the districts’ intermediate units
    • Regarding special education, the legislation would ask that notice be given to the parents of all special education students for a plan to ensure the students are receiving “free and appropriate public education”
    • Ensuring there will be no loss of school subsidies, including for charter schools, and no staff member of any public school will see any less or more compensation than would have received without the school closures
    • Addressing school bus contractors to ensure that once the current crisis has ended, school buses will be ready to provide service

• The PA Senate passed House Bill 68 by a vote of 50-0.  The bill provides updates to the state Unemployment Compensation law, including extending relief to affected employees, and supporting healthcare facilities and workers that are on the front lines of Pennsylvania’s efforts to treat patients affected by the virus.  As of 4 pm this afternoon the bill has been moved to the House Rules Committee for consideration.

Federal Coronavirus Updates:

The White House

• The Trump Administration has approached European and Asian partners to secure supplies of testing kits and other medical equipment that are in desperately short supply in the U.S.

Department of State

• The State Department is instructing top diplomats to press governments and businesses in Eastern Europe and Eurasia to ramp up exports and production of life-saving medical equipment and protective gear for the United States, part of a desperate diplomatic campaign to fill major shortcomings in the U.S. medical system amid a rising death toll from the new coronavirus.

Food and Drug Administration

• The Food and Drug Administration has begun to allow doctors to treat some patients with the blood plasma of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus-caused Covid-19 disease. The treatment must be approved on a case-by-case basis and the patients must meet certain conditions.