Hospitals, nursing homes warn of closures in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Hospitals, nursing homes and child care centers are asking Pennsylvania state government for more money to avoid closures amid a surge of coronavirus -related demands on staffing and equipment, while the union representing state corrections officers wants the prison system to stop transferring inmates.

The demands came as the new coronavirus continued to spread in Pennsylvania, with the state reporting more than 200 additional cases — an increase of more than 30% from the day before — and another death.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, took another step to delay Pennsylvania's April 28 primary election.

With hospitals warning they could run out of masks and other protective gear in about three weeks as COVID-19 spikes, the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf said it is rushing to procure more medical supplies from the federal government's stockpile, from other states and countries, and from manufacturers repurposing their factories.

"There’s a full-on effort across the administration to make sure we have the supplies for our healthcare personnel to deal with the surge of patients from COVID-19,” Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Tuesday.

Officials have been vague about the state's readiness, however.

Levine has steadfastly refused to say how much protective gear Pennsylvania has in its possession, and how much it still needs to help healthcare workers safely treat the anticipated surge of coronavirus patients. Nor have officials answered questions about the state's supply of respirators, or how many more hospital beds it might need to meet demand.

Elsewhere, as millions of Pennsylvanians hunkered down at home — many of them under order from the governor — another legal challenge came to Wolf's edict closing the physical locations of businesses...