HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday brushed aside questions about whether he will issue more orders for shutdowns as cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 spread quickly and fill Pennsylvania’s hospitals with unvaccinated patients.
Wolf, speaking during a regularly scheduled appearance in KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh, reiterated that the vaccine is his administration’s strategy for fighting the spread of COVID-19.
“The vaccine is our strategy and people need to get the vaccine,” Wolf said.
Wolf’s Department of Health expects new cases to peak in January, followed by a peak in hospitalizations in February and a peak in deaths in late February to early March.
Hospitals and nursing homes hit by severe staffing shortages as largely unvaccinated COVID-19 patients fill hospital beds. Wolf’s administration said it is from out-of-state to help.
At the start of the pandemic in spring 2020, Wolf ordered for in-person instruction, issued a broad , and ordered indoors and in public where social-distancing was impossible.
However, he has since seen that authority crimped .
over emergency disaster declarations to lawmakers and the state Supreme Court ended Wolf’s masking order in schools and child care centers, saying it lacked legal justification after the Republican-controlled Legislature voted in June .