As the coronavirus has reached the White House and first family, who have long downplayed the danger and flouted personal mitigation efforts, Governor Tom Wolf fights widespread calls of overreach, particularly by industries suffering the most from his executive actions.

Meanwhile, only days earlier, State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine reminded us to mask, wash hands, maintaining distancing and make use of the new COVID Alert PA application. Since its release last week, 173,000 Pennsylvanians have downloaded the early warning mobile phone program.

She said, “In this era of COVID-19 we are all interconnected. This virus does not discriminate. Each of us has a collective responsibility to protect our communities.”

Otherwise, Levine warned of increasing cases as the weather cools, and encouraged everyone to get a flu shot, as nobody is yet sure just how dangerous contracting both the flu and COVID will be.

She says robust distribution plans for a possible vaccine are in the works nationally, but they rely on factors that cannot be known until one – or preferably several – have been perfected. “We’ll be ready,” she said, but, “You can’t set a date on science.”

As of Monday, the state has 158,663 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 8,227 deaths. Lehigh County has 5,770 confirmed and 354 deaths; Northampton County has 4,597 confirmed and 305 deaths; the city of Bethlehem has 1,336 confirmed and 82 deaths.