TIMELINE: Pennsylvania coronavirus updates April 30

PITTSBURGH — Channel 11 News is committed to keeping you informed about the coronavirus, the impact on our community and your lives. Below you’ll find all of today’s updates, including the latest numbers and information from local and state officials.

We’re also covering positive stories in our communities. You can find the most recent ones HERE.

Have questions about the spread of the coronavirus? We have an entire section dedicated to coverage of the outbreak. CLICK HERE for more.

• TIMELINE: Pennsylvania coronavirus updates April 29
• PA CORONAVIRUS MAP: See the number of cases in each county, zip code
• LIVE UPDATES: Latest national, world coronavirus news
• Here are positive things happening within our community

Local businesses ready to get back to work

UPDATE 11 p.m.: The countdown is on as counties and businesses across our region hope they will get the green light to start reopening as soon as tomorrow.

Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to announce at some point Friday which counties will move into the “yellow phase” of the reopening plan, which relaxes some of the safety measures put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patrick Molyneaux, co-owner and chief growth officer of Molyneaux Tile Carpet, had to furlough 95% of his staff, but starting May 1 his store will be back open.

“All of a sudden in the last five days, we have had more than double the number of appointments that we had a year ago for people that want us to open back up,” said Molyneaux.

There will be changes. Customers have three different ways to get what they need: home appointments, virtual appointments or in-store visits by appointment only.

Customers will be expected to wear masks too.

“They would set an appointment to come in the store and they’d be the only customer in the store,” Molyneaux said.

Molyneaux says he expects to bring 80-90% of his workers back in the next four weeks.

Meanwhile, businesses like David Alan Clothing are trying to re-invent themselves as they wait to open back up.

“A big portion of our business is the celebrity or athlete community, and I can’t get in front of them right now,” said owner David Alan.

He expects a loss of between $500,000 and $700,000 this year alone.

He is trying to re-invent his company during the pandemic, selling masks. Alan is giving 10% of his earnings to help first responders and many others.

Airlines announce face mask requirements

UPDATE 9:05 p.m.: American Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Delta Airlines, all of which service Pittsburgh International Airport, have announced new plans to require travelers to wear face masks.

Employees have been required to wear masks for several weeks, but starting soon passengers on board the plans will also be required to mask up.

Delta’s face mask policy will begin on May 4, American Airlines will begin enforcing its new rules a week later on May 11.

Earlier this week JetBlue was the first airline to announce a passenger mask policy, which is also set to begin on May 4.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC season suspension extended

UPDATE 4:05 p.m.: The original season suspension of May 10 has been extended until at least May 15.

All tickets to postponed home matches will be honored at whatever the later date is.

House passes bill to re-open garden centers in the state

UPDATE 3:40 p.m.: HB2429 will now move to the Senate for consideration.

The bill lists emergency COVID-19 provisions, including a waiver to open lawn and garden equipment and supplies stores during the pandemic.

City of Pittsburgh personnel to start working again Friday

UPDATE 1:11 p.m.: Outdoor work will start gradually and safely, according to Mayor Bill Peduto.

These are the guidelines that will be followed:

• Conducting health screenings at the start of each shift
• Modifying work practices to maintain 6 feet of distance between all staff
• Ensuring workers have work gloves and masks or face coverings
• Providing hand washing stations and portable toilets at job sites
• Providing hand sanitizer at job sites
• Regularly sanitizing shared trucks, equipment, etc.

Other work will continue with one week on/one week off schedules, including:

• Forestry tree removal and pruning
• Street sweeping
• Clean & liens
• Vegetation control and removing downed branches
• Debris removal: sewer grates, bump outs, pools, etc.
• Step repairs
• Board ups
• Parks maintenance
• Pothole patching
• Yard debris drop off locations reopening (Tues-Sat, 7 am-3pm)
• Citywide curbside yard debris pick up (rescheduled for May 16)
• Line striping maintenance
• Crosswalk and stop bar maintenance
• Sign maintenance
• Signal operations and maintenance
• Paving
• Speed humps
• Handicap ramps

Thursday’s numbers from PA Department of Health

UPDATE 1:00 p.m.: According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health there are 1,397 additional positive cases of coronavirus in the state, bringing the total number to 45,763 cases. The department is now reporting 2,292 deaths in the state.

Of the total cases, 2,714 of them are in our area. Here is a breakdown by local counties:

• Allegheny Co.: 1,289 cases, 94 deaths
• Butler Co.: 178 cases, 6 deaths
• Beaver Co.: 405 cases, 65 deaths
• Washington Co.: 115 cases, 2 deaths
• Greene Co.: 26 cases
• Fayette Co.: 80 cases, 4 deaths
• Westmoreland Co.: 391 cases, 30 deaths (According to the Westmoreland County Coroner)
• Indiana Co.: 63 cases, 4 deaths
• Clarion Co.: 23 cases, 1 death
• Venango Co.: 7 cases
• Forest Co.: 7 cases
• Lawrence Co.: 65 cases, 6 deaths
• Mercer Co.: 65 cases, 1 death

There are 175,602 patients who have tested negative to date.

Of the patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is as follows:

• Nearly 1% are aged 0-4;
• Nearly 1% are aged 5-12;
• 1% are aged 13-18;
• Nearly 6% are aged 19-24;
• Nearly 38% are aged 25-49;
• 27% are aged 50-64; and
• 26% are aged 65 or older.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 8,112 resident cases of COVID-19, and 1,032 cases among employees, for a total of 9,144 at 468 distinct facilities in 44 counties. Out of our total deaths, 1,505 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities. A county breakdown can be found here.

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport re-opening Sunday

UPDATE 12:10 p.m.: Spirit Airlines will start offering flights to Orlando three days a week: Sunday, Monday and Thursday.

Airport officials ask that if anyone does not have to be in the terminal to not come inside.

Passengers should print their boarding passes before getting to the airport, try to use carry-on luggage and at the airport at least two hours before the flights’s departure. Officials also ask that passengers practice social distancing when in the airport.

You can watch the full announcement HERE.

City Controller addresses Pittsburgh’s finances as result of COVID-19 pandemic

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: “While we do not yet know the full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will have on City revenues, the city recognizes that the budgetary impact will be significant,” said Michael Lamb. “We do remain optimistic that steps can be taken to manage city finances going forward.”

Lamb added that since the end of March when this situation escalated, most tax categories are seeing less in the way of city revenue collections than at this same time last year.

Wahlburger’s feeding first responders, frontline heroes in Pittsburgh

UPDATE 11:15 a.m.: The restaurant chain will target police precincts, fire stations, hospitals, nursing homes, testing sites, shelters and UPS branches to donate warm meals as part of its #WhateverYouNeed campaign.

Pittsburgh is one of 13 cities that will get meal deliveries at locations like those starting next week.

COVID-19 in Allegheny County: Thursday update

UPDATE 11:05 a.m.: An additional 16 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in Allegheny County, bringing the total to 1,273, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.

Of the 1,289 cases, 1,244 have been confirmed and 45 are probable.

The Health Department said there have been 94 deaths, eight more than were reported Wednesday. Eighty-four of the deaths were people who tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 were probable cases. All deaths have been people between the ages of 42 and 103.

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Coronavirus in Pennsylvania: Allegheny Co. has 1,289 cases, 94 deaths

There are 236 people who have been or are currently being hospitalized.

Here is a breakdown of cases by age group:

• 00-04 – 4 (less than 1%)
• 05-12 – 4 (less than 1%)
• 13-18 – 10 (1%)
• 19-24 – 90 (7%)
• 25-49 – 446 (35%)
• 50-64 – 362 (28%)
• 65 + – 373 (29%)

Of the cases in Allegheny County, 684 are female and 605 are male.

PennDOT construction projects will start again Friday

UPDATE 10:45 a.m.: PennDOT paused all non-emergency projects on March 17 when Governor Wolf announced guidance for the state.

As May 1 allows for a phased-in reopening of public and private construction, all state highway and bridge reconstruction projects will resume Friday, May 1.

Frontier Airlines to require all passengers to cover their face

UPDATE 10:35 a.m.: The requirement applies to passengers at the airline’s ticket counters, gate areas and on Frontier aircraft and goes into effect May 8.

All crew members have been wearing a face covering over their nose and mouth since April 13.

3 local hospitals get emergency funding

UPDATE 10:30 a.m.: Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, Indiana Regional Medical Center and Monongahela Valley Hospital have all received money from the state’s hospital emergency loan program.

Each received between $10 and $15 million to help with having sufficient personnel, equipment and PPE, according to a news release.

“As Pennsylvania continues to practice social distancing, we have successfully flattened the curve, but we know that our fight against COVID-19 is far from over,” said Gov. Wolf. “This funding will allow our hospitals to hold steady in that fight with the peace of mind that they have access to the resources they need to provide critical care to their communities.”

Coronavirus in Pennsylvania: Thursday morning

UPDATE 4:30 a.m.: While Allegheny County’s COVID-19 cases are trending well below the threshold set by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for reopening, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald believes the county will be included in the second wave of re-openings.

The first wave of re-openings is expected to start May 8. The second wave could come around May 15.

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According to Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen, there must be no more than 50 new cases for every 100,000 people in order to begin reopening.

Based on Allegheny County’s population of 1.3 million, the number of new cases needs to be lower than 650. Bogen said data showed Allegheny County has been under that threshold, at 328 new or confirmed cases over the past 14-day period.

As of Wednesday, Pennsylvania had 44,366 cases of the coronavirus and 2,195 deaths. There have been 170,518 people who tested negative for the virus.

Mayor Peduto, leaders of other mid-size cities ask for help from federal government Mayor Peduto, leaders of other mid-size cities ask for help from federal government

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