93-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve Show podcast.

And now, Preston and Steve's news updates with Kathy Romano.

Today is Friday. It's June 5th. Good morning, Kathy.

Good morning in the news this morning. On March 23rd, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe and Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine,

issued a stay-at-home order for seven counties to mitigate and spread the spread of COVID-19.

Among those counties were Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia.

Philadelphia had issued its own order a day earlier.

Now, a month later, the entire state of Pennsylvania was classified in the red phase of Wolfe's reopening plan, which involves strict social distancing, non-life-sustaining businesses and schools remaining closed, and only carry-out or delivery options for restaurants.

Now, 10 weeks later, after the state-home order was issued for the entire southeastern Pennsylvania region, things are changing.

The state-home order was lifted today, but Wolf reminded

that the state residents, that yellow means caution, and even in the green phase, everyone still

needs to take precautions to keep themselves and their communities healthy. On Thursday, Pennsylvania

reported 537 more positive cases of COVID-19 and 75 new deaths. Up until Thursday, Philadelphia had not yet confirmed whether

it would be moving with the rest of the counties into the yellow phase due to the ongoing

demonstrations and protests this week. But Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley

did finally confirm yesterday the city did move into the yellow phase as well. There were 121

new coronavirus cases in the city with 70 new deaths

reported on Thursday. So what does the yellow phase look like? Well, it looks a little bit different

in Philadelphia than other counties. So the yellow phase allows for gatherings of no more than 25 people,

but Farley does not recommend that for Philadelphia. He says the city is not advising social gatherings outside of the house at all.

Under the yellow phase, restaurants can open outdoor dining on Friday, June 5th, but not in Philadelphia.

City restaurants will have to wait another week. Outdoor dining can resume for businesses inside the city limits with existing outdoor seating beginning on Friday, June 12th.

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