Your afternoon coronavirus update: Pennsylvania passes 25,000 coronavirus cases; 60 new deaths reported

Mail-in, absentee ballot applications surge for June primary

• Mark Scolforo/The Associated Press
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• Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press
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  I'm a Pennsylvania-based journalist who covers all sorts of stories for The Associated Press. Tips and story ideas welcome! Reach me at mrubinkam@ap.org

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania counties have processed about 283,000 absentee and mail-in ballots for the June primary, and requests from Democrats are three times more common than from Republicans, state elections officials said Tuesday.

The Department of State said 89,000 absentee ballot requests have already been processed, with the June 2 primary still seven weeks away.

During the 2016 primary, 84,000 votes were cast under the absentee ballot system, which is available only to those who offer an acceptable reason they would not be able to vote in person.

Counties have already processed 195,000 requests for mail-in ballots under a state law passed last fall that permits them for any voter who requests one.

Pennsylvania has about 4.1 million registered Democrats and 3.3 million Republicans. Of the absentee and mail-in requests for the primary processed so far, about 209,000 are from Democrats and 73,000 from Republicans.

Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren said remote voting applications jumped after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf issued orders closing schools and businesses not considered essential to sustaining life.

“First of all, the mail-in option is brand new, and now, with the COVID-19 situation, people want to vote at home, and we’re encouraging that,” Murren said. “We really have no way of knowing what this will end up looking like.”

In a Wisconsin statewide judicial election held last week, preliminary results indicated absentee ballots accounted for about seven in 10 of all ballots cast, compared with 12% during a Wisconsin Supreme Court election last year.

Some of Pennsylvania’s most populous counties have begun asking about conducting the June 2 primary election entirely by mail amid fears the pandemic will pose a threat to poll workers and voters.

In other coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania:

CASES

Pennsylvania passed 25,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and the state Health Department reported 60 new deaths.

The agency said there were 1,146 additional virus cases for a new statewide total of more than 25,300. The death toll climbed to 584 including 10 new fatalities in central Pennsylvania.

Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, said that social distancing measures have succeeded in slowing the rate of transmission, but “now is not the time to become complacent.” Gov. Tom Wolf has closed schools and nonessential businesses indefinitely and ordered people to stay home.

Officials say most of the patients hospitalized are over the age of 65, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients in that age range. There have been no pediatric deaths in Pennsylvania.

Levine has said the state’s true number of virus cases is likely far higher.

Since the first cases were reported in central Pennsylvania on March 13, a total of 3,810 people in the region have tested positive for the virus.

The first coronavirus-related deaths in this region were reported about two weeks later, on March 28. In the 16 days since, a total 75 central Pennsylvania residents have died from COVID-19 or related complications.

Today’s update includes six new deaths in Berks County, two in Lancaster County, and one each in Cumberland and Dauphin counties.

• Adams: 63 cases, including 1 death
• Berks: 1247 cases, including 27 deaths
• Columbia: 125 cases, including 3 deaths
• Cumberland: 122 cases, including 4 deaths
• Dauphin: 249 cases, including 5 deaths
• Franklin: 69 cases
• Juniata: 43 cases
• Lancaster: 865 cases, including 26 deaths
• Lebanon: 328 cases, including 2 deaths
• Mifflin: 16 cases
• Northumberland: 48 cases
• Perry: 17 cases, including 1 death
• Schuylkill: 200 cases, including 2 deaths
• Snyder: 24 cases, including 1 death
• Union: 23 cases
• York: 371 cases, including 3 deaths

A Cumberland County spokesperson said Tuesday that a second staff member at Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Carlisle tested positive for COVID-19. The staffers are quarantined, and no residents have the virus, according to a news release.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

OHIO LIQUOR CRACKDOWN

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday said liquor sales in six Ohio counties would be restricted to individuals with valid Ohio ID or proof that they work in Ohio for an essential business.

The governor cited the decision of Pennsylvania to close its liquor stores on March 17, followed by the decision earlier this month by several county health boards in northern West Virginia to limit liquor sales to state residents only, out of fears of an influx of out-of-state residents.

Four of the six counties border Pennsylvania; three border West Virginia.

DeWine said those moves then pushed out-of-state people into Ohio. DeWine called his restriction a “work in progress” and said that if additional counties have a significant influx of customers from out of state, he’ll take additional action.