Luzerne County acting manager lifting COVID-19 limited access protocols

Luzerne County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Wednesday she is reopening all county buildings to the public starting Feb. 14 due to a decline in coronavirus cases.

“Well, it’s been a LONG time coming, but it looks like we are approaching a return to normalcy,” Crocamo said in an email to workers about the updated COVID-19 protocols.

Masks will still be required to enter county buildings until further notice, she said.

“The administration will continue to monitor the county positivity and hospitalization rate as well as internal COVID positive results of county staff in order to make an informed decision regarding any change in the mask policy,” she wrote.

According to the state health department’s latest early warning dashboard update, the county’s average daily hospitalizations were 154.9 the week ending Feb. 3, which was a decrease of 24.7 from the 179.6 reported the week ending Jan. 27.

There were 1,140 new coronavirus cases in the county the week ending Feb. 3, or a decrease of 1,131 from the prior week’s 2,271 new cases, it said.

The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, dropped from 27.5% to a new 20.9% over the two-week period.

Crocamo credited workers for their resilience, saying she is thankful for those who made sacrifices to keep coworkers safe throughout the pandemic.