{"id":45565,"date":"2020-04-22T14:21:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T18:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=45565"},"modified":"2020-04-22T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T18:21:22","slug":"covid-19-update-april-22-case-numbers-continue-to-slide-wolf-pushes-for-mail-in-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=45565","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Update, April 22: Case numbers continue to slide; Wolf pushes for mail-in voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The slow \u2014 but downward \u2014 slope of new COVID-19 cases continued Tuesday, as it appears that Pennsylvania and Chester County continued to show signs Tuesday of having passed the worst in the current pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, even with the good news, state Department of Health (DOH) officials caution that social distancing measures \u201cbent the curve\u201d and folks should not rush to change that behavior, even if trends continue over next few days, reminding that Gov. Tom Wolf\u2019s Stay At Home order remains in place until May 8.<\/span><\/p>\n

The numbers do offer some hope that the worst may be over \u2014 even as Centers For Disease Control (CDC) officials warned Tuesday of a possible second outbreak later this year. DOH reported 1,156 new cases Tuesday, bringing the total to 35,684. DOH reported 58 new deaths among confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, brining the total to 1,622.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we see the number of new COVID-19 cases continuously change across the state that does not mean we can stop practicing social distancing,\u201d Sec. of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. \u201cWe must continue to stay home to protect ourselves, our families and our community. If you must go out, please make as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself, but others. We need all Pennsylvanians to continue to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our health care workers and frontline responders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Chester County, County Health reported 28 new cases \u2014 the same number two straight days \u2014 for a total of 943 and no new deaths, with the total holding at 49. DOH, however, reports two new deaths for a total of 67.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, although it is possible that much more of society will be open in time for the June 2 primary election, Gov. Wolf is encouraging residents to apply for a mail-in ballot<\/span><\/a><\/span> for the primary election. Wolf also announced the Department of State\u00a0has launched an awareness campaign to inform the public about the new primary election date and how to apply for a mail-in ballot,\u00a0including sending 4.2 million postcards to\u00a0primary\u00a0voters. In-person voting at polling places will remain available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There is no more important civic duty than voting, but we also want to make sure that every primary voter can cast their vote safely,”\u00a0said Governor Wolf. \u201cThis election is the first time that voters have the option to vote by mail-in ballot and I encourage every Pennsylvania voter to visit votesPA.com<\/span><\/a> to conveniently\u00a0update their registration or apply for a mail-in ballot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Registered voters can apply online for a mail-in or absentee ballot at votespa.com.<\/span><\/a> The deadline is 5 p.m., May 26. So far, 462,085 voters have applied for a mail-in ballot and 139,572 voters have applied for an absentee ballot.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa The slow \u2014 but downward \u2014 slope of new COVID-19 cases continued Tuesday, as it appears that Pennsylvania and Chester County continued to show signs Tuesday of having passed the worst in the current pandemic. Still, even with the good news, state Department of Health (DOH) officials caution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12855,12902,7426,6754,12974],"class_list":["post-45565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-department-of-health","tag-featured","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-mail-in-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45566,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45565\/revisions\/45566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}