On Thursday, March 12, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced that effective March 13, 2020 the state is “aggressively moving to a [COVID-19] mitigation phase” in Montgomery County in an effort to prevent any further spread of the coronavirus. This step includes the shutdown of various facilities within the county that are prone to higher volumes of public gatherings, including all schools, state-licensed child care centers and adult day care centers.

Gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open and essential services such as police, fire and EMS will remain available, as will essential services for vulnerable populations. However, the governor and the commonwealth recommend that non-essential retail facilities close and also ask that people refrain from non-essential travel. Furthermore, Amtrak will operate on a reduced schedule and the governor is evaluating whether local transit (SEPTA) will follow suit.

Commonwealth employees who work and/or live in Montgomery County will be instructed to work from home. Those individuals who do not have telework capabilities will be given a 10-workday paid absence.

On a statewide basis, the Governor is strongly encouraging gatherings of 250 people or more be suspended. He is also discouraging people from traveling to recreational activities in public places, such as gyms, movie theaters and shopping malls.

The mitigation plan for Montgomery County will go into effect on Friday, March 13 and is anticipated to last 14 days. Guidance for Montgomery County (as well as for the Commonwealth in general) can be found on the Governor’s webpage.

The Governor’s remarks followed an announcement earlier in the day regarding four additional presumptive positive coronavirus cases in Montgomery County, bringing the total to 13 (more than half of the 20 presumptive cases statewide, which do not include the two CDC-confirmed cases in Delaware and Wayne Counties, according to the PA Dept. of Health).

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