This week Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Wolf is expected to provide more details on his plan to lift stay at home orders. Regions will be assessed prior to being lifted from red or stop to yellow or caution process beginning May 8th, 2020. As health care workers continue to battle COVID-19 there is a new shortage in the state.

As the sun begins to peek through clouds more often, a reporter asked the question on a lot of people's minds, whether swimming pools will be open, if baseball will be played, and if there will be summer camp? But the state warned it's too early to determine what a new normal will look like, And emphasized COVID-19 is ten times more deadly than the flu or influenza.

Secretary of Health Dr. Rachael Levine said, "As doctor Fauci and others have said, "The virus determines the timeline, we don't determine the timeline. We are starting on May 8th to roll out this progressive reopening and counties and regions going from red to yellow. It's much to soon to determine what things will look like in the middle of the summer."

As 40,000 people in P-A have been diagnosed with COVID-19 one target goal for opening up regions or counties includes fewer than 50 new confirmed cases per 100,000 population in two weeks. Increased testing and hospital resources in the county or region are other factors.

Levine talked about shortages in testing the past, however, he explained that "Overall I think we are doing somewhat better. I think our state laboratory has in the last week obtained a significant number of supplies so we can continue more testing and we have heard from many hospitals and health systems that they are doing better with their reagents and they're able to expand their own testing. I do not expect at this time any shortages will impact our ability to do testing on the regions we identified that will go from red to yellow."

Levine added, "We did recently receive two shipments of N-95 masks used by health care professionals. Where we are low is in traditional medical surgical procedure masks, hospital gowns, and gloves. We have been told at this time the national stockpile is very low in those materials and we should not expect any from the federal government at this time. Hopefully, they will be able to replace some of their supply. We are looking at the Governor's office in the United States, and other places globally to try and find these resources. We are actually going to rely upon our excellent hospital and health systems through their mutual aid agreement." She explained that hospitals with plenty of supplies and fewer patients have supplied personal protective equipment or PPE to distressed hospitals in Philadelphia to allow them to take care of sick patients with COVID-19.

The state emphasizes there resource for caregivers of children or adults with autism, Asperger syndrome, and people with intellectual disabilities. Levine emphasized, "If you are an individual or family member who needs assistance please contact the statewide support and referral helpline at 855-284-8505.