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This article is shared with LebTown by content partner Spotlight PA.

By Colin Deppen of Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG โ€” Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that he is lifting some statewide COVID-19 restrictions effective immediately, upping occupancy limits for both indoor and outdoor events and eliminating out-of-state travel restrictions in place since November. Mask mandates and social distancing rules remain in effect.

Pointing to declining case numbers and increasing vaccination numbers, the governor said heโ€™s taking a โ€œmeasured approachโ€ to easing restrictions put in place by his administration over the past year. Mondayโ€™s announcement comes just under one year after Pennsylvania recorded its first coronavirus death on March 18, 2020. Twenty-four thousand more Pennsylvanians have died from the virus since then.

โ€œThere is light at the end of the tunnel,โ€ Wolf said Monday, adding, โ€œWe need to balance protecting public health with leading the state to a robust economic recovery. We are lifting mitigation efforts only when we believe it is safe to do so.โ€

Under the revised and lifted rules, maximum occupancy limits for indoor events are increasing to 15% of a venueโ€™s maximum occupancy with a 6-foot physical distancing requirement still in place. Outdoor gathering limits will increase to 20% of a venueโ€™s capacity, and out-of-state travel restrictions are eliminated, removing 14-day quarantine and testing requirements for incoming travelers.

Indoor events were previously limited to 5% or 10%, based on a venueโ€™s size, while outdoor events were limited to 15% capacity for smaller venues and 5% or 10% for larger ones.

Mondayโ€™s softening and standardizing of these rules would have been nearly unthinkable months ago, when Pennsylvania was setting near-daily records for new COVID-19 cases amid a dramatic cold-weather resurgence and official warnings against in-person holiday gatherings.

Pennsylvania reported more than 12,000 new cases on a single day in mid-December. By comparison, the state reported 1,945 new cases on Sunday, as the seven-day average dropped to levels not seen in nearly four months.

But Pennsylvaniaโ€™s shrinking case numbers are still above the levels seen last year when Pennsylvania began instituting the kind of COVID-19 restrictions itโ€™s now rolling back.

In announcing the lifting and easing of some COVID-19 rules on Monday, Wolfโ€™s office noted Pennsylvaniaโ€™s vaccination numbers are climbing after a troubled rollout. It also noted a desire to lessen impacts after a year of dire economic and societal disruptions.

And while public health officials nationwide have warned against easing COVID-19 rules too quickly, Wolfโ€™s office says it is moving methodically and incrementally.

WHILE YOUโ€™RE HERE… If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.

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