Lehigh and Northampton counties now under mandatory stay-at-home order

 Lehigh and Northampton counties now under mandatory stay-at-home order

By Jen Rehill

March 26, 2020

Two counties in the Lehigh Valley are now under mandatory stay-at-home orders from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. That began at 8 o’clock, Wednesday, March 25.

WLVR’s Jen Rehill reports area residents now join those in eight other counties across the state under lockdown to limit the spread of coronavirus. 

Governor Tom Wolf spoke via video news conference about this stay-at-home order yesterday. 

“To further our mitigation efforts, I have amended my stay at home order to include now Northampton and Lehigh Counties,” said Gov. Wolf

Lehigh Valley residents are now prohibited from leaving home, except for health or safety purposes, or work in life-sustaining sectors, like health care.

There are exceptions to the order. Allowable activities include getting groceries or medication and going out to care for dependents, those with disabilities, seniors or pets. Outdoor activities like walks are also fine, as long as social distancing is observed. However, some areas have seen playgrounds closed to discourage close contact.

Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine explained the reasoning.

“That decision was made because of the rise in cases, the community spread that we were seeing in those counties and particularly the deaths we saw in Northampton County,” said Levine.

For now, there are no plans to enforce restrictions on residents’ movements, but Wolf and Levine implored people to cooperate. The move is designed to prevent a surge of patients at area hospitals as coronavirus cases multiply at exponential rates.