Brown

Brown

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WILKES-BARRE — Just as he issued it more than a year ago at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor George Brown followed Harrisburg’s lead and lifted the State of Emergency.

By executive order Tuesday Brown terminated the declaration he first issued on March 16, 2020 that authorized him to take emergency management measures to protect the health and safety of residents and reduce the severity of the state of emergency. Wilkes-Barre City Council twice extended the declaration on March 20, 2020 and April 16, 2020, with the second extension in effect until the termination.

“They relinquished theirs. We pulled back ours also,” Brown said referring to the action taken by state lawmakers on June 10.

Brown’s order came a day after the state lifted the mandate for people to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the highly contagious and deadly novel coronavirus. Capacity restrictions for public events and meetings also had been removed as the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf incrementally took steps to reopen the state with the availability of vaccines for the virus.

As of Tuesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 62.7% of the population of Pennsylvania received a first dose of a vaccine. The percentage increased to 75.3% when the field is narrowed to people 18 and older. But for the same demographic, 60% have been fully vaccinated.

In Luzerne County more than half of the eligible residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The county had a 51.7% rate as of Monday, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard at www.health.pa.gov.

The case count in the county has been dwindling. The Pennsylvania Department of Health Wednesday reported 11 new cases in the county, bringing the total to 32,118 since last year. Throughout the state there have been 1,212,071 positive cases.

The state reported 827 people in the county died as a result of the virus. Statewide there have been 27,678 deaths.

Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.