Food security a Pennsylvania priority during COVID-19 pandemic
With an unprecedented number of people on unemployment compensation in Pennsylvania because of the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials are concerned about food not being available to the hungry.
Some of the newly laid-off workers have never before needed to ask for free food and don’t even know where to ask for help, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday.
“We need to make sure food gets to the hungry,” Wolf said during an afternoon online briefing called to draw attention to the state’s food security efforts.
Everyone who applies for unemployment compensation now gets an email and mailed letter letting them know where to find free food, said state agriculture Sec. Russell Redding.
“You no longer have to prove eligibility,” Redding said when he joined Wolf in the livestream.
Redding said many people who need food for the first time in their lives have too much pride to ask for help.
He said last week the state took steps to ensure front line workers on the food supply chain are eligible for priority testing for COVID-19 and provide guidance to their employers on safe distancing practices.
Wolf said the employees at food processing plants, grocery stores and warehouses are going to be the final judges on whether or not they feel safe to work at these locations.
“We need these employers to stay in business,” Wolf said at a time when more than 1.6 million Pennsylvanians have filed claims for unemployment compensation.
Pennsylvania recorded a spike in new COVID-19 deaths Wednesday after taking a closer look at data and other reports over the past 10 days, the state health department said.
State health Secretary Rachel Levine said 2,634 adults have died in Pennsylvania from the novel coronavirus, a number that showed a 918 increase from the previous day.
She said the new death toll now closely resembles the data that has been collected by coroners.
Levine said as businesses begin to reopen in certain regions of the state next week the plan will not be a free pass for residents to return to their normal routines.
“You must be careful and vigilant with social distancing,” she said.
Employers should allow their staffs to continue working remotely when possible, and wearing masks in public will still be required.
Wolf is expected to announce his May 8 reopening plan Friday.
Meanwhile, Washington County added four new positive cases of COVID-19, taking its total to 113 in a county where two people have died from the virus. Greene County, which has not had a COVID-19 death, had 26 positive cases of the virus.
Pennsylvania had 1,102 new cases of the virus, taking its total Wednesday to 43,802.