Slowly we are learning to live with Covid-19 because the alternative is worse.
An increasing number of Pennsylvania district attorneys are stating that their offices will not prosecute businesses for violating Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) orders restricting them from reopening.
“People are being smart, wearing masks, and maintaining social distance. Using criminal sanctions would not be helpful,” Dauphin County district attorney Fran Chardo said in a Saturday press release, which indicated that prosecution would only occur in an “extraordinary circumstances.”
Wolf recently extended the lockdown order for counties remaining in the red phase to June 4. Only “life sustaining” businesses are permitted to operate, with a small exception for those who applied for waivers — a controversial process that has been under intense scrutiny, spurring a class action lawsuit on behalf of businesses that were rejected for reasons that remain largely unknown.
Dauphin County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jeff Haste outlined the county’s plan to defy Wolf’s order on Friday, demanding the governor to “return our state to the people (as prescribed by our Constitution).