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Pennsylvania coronavirus fallout: Lehigh Valley restaurants on ‘life support’; Gov. Wolf stands by recommendation to halt youth sports until Jan. 1

  • Wearing her mask while cleaning, Madison Wilson, a waitress at...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Wearing her mask while cleaning, Madison Wilson, a waitress at Braveheart Highland Pub, cleans the bar Thursday in Hellertown. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure in late May. The restaurant had been temporarily closed since mid-March and wasn't able to survive the shutdown.

  • Rope has been installed in one section of the bar...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Rope has been installed in one section of the bar area to prevent customers from sitting in the area Thursday, at Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • Customers walk to their table Thursday, on Braveheart Highland Pub's...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Customers walk to their table Thursday, on Braveheart Highland Pub's new deck in Hellertown. The pub added the $45,000 deck to maximize its outdoor dining and has taken out other loans to stay afloat during the pandemic.

  • Rope has been installed in one section of the bar...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Rope has been installed in one section of the bar area to prevent customers from sitting in the area Thursday, at Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • The dining capacity has been reduced by more than half...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    The dining capacity has been reduced by more than half the amount of tables Thursday, at Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure in late May. The restaurant had been temporarily closed since mid-March and wasn't able to survive the shutdown.

  • Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown added a $45,000 deck to...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown added a $45,000 deck to maximize its outdoor dining and has taken out other loans to stay afloat during the pandemic. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown added a $45,000 deck to...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown added a $45,000 deck to maximize its outdoor dining and has taken out other loans to stay afloat during the pandemic. The restaurant has been slowly building back its business, though the latest restrictions that capped indoor dining capacity at 25% dealt another blow.

  • Left, Barry Heil of Catasauqua; Tim Turner and Joe Adamchick,...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Left, Barry Heil of Catasauqua; Tim Turner and Joe Adamchick, both of Pittsburgh, look over their menus Thursday, on Braveheart Highland Pub's new deck in Hellertown. The pub added the $45,000 deck to maximize its outdoor dining and has taken out other loans to stay afloat during the pandemic.

  • Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure in late May. The restaurant had been temporarily closed since mid-March and wasn't able to survive the shutdown.

  • Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure...

    Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call

    Taps Tavern in Lower Saucon Township announced its permanent closure in late May. The restaurant had been temporarily closed since mid-March and wasn't able to survive the shutdown.

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Nearly a month after Gov. Tom Wolf issued a coronavirus mitigation order that limited restaurants to 25% of their indoor seating capacity, Lehigh Valley restaurants are on “life support” financially, Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tony Iannelli said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Wolf on Thursday repeated his stance on another aspect of societal fallout from the pandemic by recommending that no organized youth and school sports be played before Jan. 1.

He was supported by Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, who ? speaking on a day when the state reported 991 new cases of the virus ? said, “There is still significant community spread and community transmission of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania.”

Iannelli and Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association President and CEO John Longstreet were asked about the status of restaurants as Wolf’s 25% dining room limitation approached a month in duration.

It was issued July 15 by Wolf, who said a resurgence in the virus had been caused in part by careless actions of bar and restaurant patrons.

Now, Iannelli said, restaurants are on “life support.” Most, he added, “are literally on the edge” of closing.

Several legislative initiatives are underway to help restaurants financially, but because the House and Senate will not be back in Harrisburg on a regular basis until next month, many restaurants might fail before aid arrives.

Iannelli said he appreciates that Wolf is trying to balance concern for physical health and economic health in the state, but said “We have to do something.”

Longstreet said that at 25%, with so few tables open to customers, “indoor dining is basically closed.”

He said nothing has changed since he testified on July 28 before House lawmakers that the 25% cap might cause 7,500 Pennsylvania restaurants to close.

“The 25% is not only the last nail in the coffin, but it has [also] removed all hope for restaurants,” Longstreet said.

His organization has repeatedly asked the Wolf administration to supply data it used to set the 25% limit, but Longstreet said it has received none.

Longstreet said he has been told that within the Wolf administration, a return to a 50% limit is a “regular source of discussion.”

Limits having an effect

But Wolf adminstration statements on Thursday offered little indication of any potential change in the restaurant limit.

A spokeswoman for Wolf, Lyndsay Kensinger, said in an email that a White House Coronavirus Task Force report to Pennsylvania recommended keeping the indoor dining limit in restaurants at 25%, and also keeping closed establishments where social distancing and mask use cannot occur, such as bars and nightclubs.

Wolf told reporters at a press conference he believes his July 15 order is having an effect. But he gave a mixed impression on whether the general trend of the cases is up or down.

Wolf told reporters the state has had a resurgence of virus cases. The daily new case count, he said, once was 300 to 400 cases a day and “we are now at 800 to 900 cases a day, and we have been higher than that. There is a resurgence in the summer, and so I took steps, like with restaurants and bars, to restrict access to those things and they have had an impact so we are actually having fewer and fewer cases.”

There were 991 new cases reported Thursday. In the previous week, the new counts were 807, 758, 813, 760, 601, 828 and 849.

Kensinger reiterated the administration’s support for a proposed federal aid package for restaurants.

Fall sports battle

On another aspect of the pandemic’s fallout, Wolf stood by a recommendation he made last week that youth sports should not occur until Jan. 1 in order to limit virus spread.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association earlier this week sent Wolf a letter arguing that youth sports were going to occur regardless of state decisions, and that school-sanctioned formats might be the safest approach.

Wolf said he received the letter and was in touch with PIAA.

But, he said, transporting students across county lines “for whatever reason” would ? by the increasing the chance of virus spread ? also increase the chance of ongoing disruptions to their education.

“Let’s put that on pause,” he said. “The focus should be on learning.”

He stressed that it was only a recommendation.

“I also recommended this summer Pennsylvanians avoid going to the Jersey Shore,” Wolf said. “I am sorry. That’s my recommendation. You do what you want. And school districts are going to do what they want.”

Virus data

The 991 new cases reported by the Health Department on Thursday bring the total to 122,121.

Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized in Pennsylvania about midday Thursday were the same as it was early Wednesday afternoon, at 606.

In the Lehigh Valley region, the number of hospitalizations was essentially unchanged, with 11 in Lehigh County; two in Northampton; three in Monroe; two in Bucks; zero in Carbon; nine in Berks; 42 in Montgomery and zero in Schuylkill.

There were 24 more deaths reported on Thursday, bringing the total to 7,409.

Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com