Pennsylvania

The federal government sent its first shipment of 1,200 doses of investigational antiviral drug remdesivir to the Pennsylvania Health Department on Tuesday.

“We’re all doing the best we can in the new normal here,” said Kevin Gombotz, vice president of Envinity, a green design and construction company.

“It wasn’t about getting masks out to the public. It was about saving his company and making as much money as possible."

An AP review of more than 6,000 pages of 2019 spending line items found lawmakers often use the latitude their own rules provide to decide what to buy and from whom.

Here are some highlights of how the Pennsylvania General Assembly spent taxpayer money on its own operations during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

GOP members of the legislature are organizing to reopen Pennsylvania faster than Gov. Tom Wolf wants. Businesses that defy orders could lose state licenses.

Help with refinancing debt could help shale companies in PA

At least six Pa. counties have said they would no longer enforce the governor’s business shutdown orders, meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Lancaster, Schuylkill, Lebanon and Dauphin counties have all announced plans to move from the more restrictive “red” phase to “yellow.”

With no guarantee they can collect unemployment if they refuse to go to work, immunocompromised workers fear a near-impossible choice: Risk losing their jobs, or their life.

Reopening too soon could exacerbate the already devastating death toll in long-term care facilities, they say.

Similar measures to those envisioned were later put in place, but only after widespread outbreaks were already underway.

Preliminary vital statistics show the state recorded 49,384 total deaths from any cause through the end of April. In April 2019, there were 46,521 deaths.

The governor has at least two choices, experts say: turn over the information or invoke executive privilege, potentially setting off a court fight.

Chester County has contracted with Lehigh Valley Genomics, an approved lab in Bethlehem, to monitor the tests and will offer them at two locations.