Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photo: Shutterstock

Following is a listing of executive and legislative action for the week of May 4. The Pennsylvania Senate was in recess at press time, subject to recall by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, on 12 hours' notice. The state House of Representatives was in recess, and was scheduled to return to session Monday. Both chambers were practicing social distancing, with senators allowed to vote remotely and state representatives able to vote by proxy through party whips.

Civil Immunity

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on May 6 signed an executive order to afford health care practitioners protection against liability for good-faith actions taken in response to the call to supplement the health care provider workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This Executive Order to Enhance Protections for Health Care Professionals serves to protect the individuals serving on the front lines of the disaster response," Wolf said in a statement.

The order, among other things, grants immunity to any individual who holds a license, certificate, registration or certification to practice a health care profession or occupation in Pennsylvania and who is engaged in providing COVID-19 medical and health treatment or services during the COVID-19 disaster emergency response.

There is an exception to immunity in cases of willful misconduct like crime or fraud.

It also extends immunity to those medical professionals in Pennsylvania that provide services in any health care facility as defined by the Health Care Facilities Act, as well as any nursing facility, personal care home, assisted living facility or any alternate care site, and affirms immunity for any owner of real estate whose premises are being used for emergency services without compensation.

During the course of the pandemic and the disaster declaration associated with it, the Wolf administration has used its authority under the declaration to suspend regulations and regulatory statutes in order to supplement the health care workforce. Among those measures are steps to facilitate the deployment of retirees and out-of-state health care professionals, to expand the scope of practices and to relax supervision requirements for numerous health care licensees.

The order was written in response to stakeholders requesting civil immunity for health care practitioners practicing with good judgment under very challenging circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Wolf administration statement said. The executive order also is in line with actions neighboring states have taken and is responsive to the needs and requests of the health care community.

This order is effective immediately.

Coronavirus Corps

Wolf on May 6 announced the creation of the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps, a public service initiative aimed at offering support efforts this fall to increase testing and contact tracing and provide critical new job opportunities in the public health sector.

"Our highest priority remains protecting public health and safety, but we must also look ahead to see how we can address future needs," Wolf said in a statement. "To reopen our economy to its maximum potential, we will need to boost our ability to contain this highly transmissible virus. The Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps will serve as a public service program that will expand our ability to conduct contact tracing and testing and mobilize Pennsylvanians to contain COVID-19."

The Wolf administration statement said that continued careful efforts to reopen Pennsylvania will depend on our ability to expand the availability of COVID-19 testing and develop a robust infrastructure to conduct surveillance and contact tracing. As Pennsylvania plans to ramp up these efforts in the coming months, the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps would engage in partnerships with local public health agencies, community organizations and the nonprofit community to expand Pennsylvania's existing testing and contact tracing initiatives. It would also train COVID-19-impacted dislocated and unemployed workers into public service for contact tracing roles, which would address Pennsylvania's health and economic needs.

Business Reopening

Wolf on May 4 detailed guidance businesses must follow to conduct in-person operations in the 24 counties slated to move to the yellow phase of reopening May 8.

Continuing telework where feasible and practicing social distancing are key tenets of the guidance.

All businesses, including nonprofits, permitted to conduct in-person operations are subject to this guidance. This guidance is based on the building safety and business safety orders under which nearly all life-sustaining businesses have been operating during the red phase.

"Businesses in the 24 counties that may reopen beginning May 8 must take precautions to protect their employees, their employees' families, and their communities," Wolf said. "First and foremost, businesses that have been operating using telework must continue to do so to prevent the spreading of COVID-19 until the stay-at-home and business closure orders are fully lifted when we enter a 'green' phase."

Under the yellow phase of reopening, life-sustaining businesses that could not conduct either all or part of their operations via telework will continue to conduct their operations in-person, and many non-life-sustaining businesses will be permitted to restart their in-person operations through the loosening of some restrictions under the stay-at-home and business closure orders.

In counties that have been designated as in the yellow phase, all businesses, except those categories specifically listed as remaining closed in the governor's Plan to Reopen Pennsylvania, are permitted to conduct in-person operations, as long as they strictly adhere to the requirements of the guidance.

Nursing Homes

Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said May 7 that he has proposed a bill aimed at establishing a framework to ensure the safety of nursing homes, which have been an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania.

"Pennsylvania needs to protect our most vulnerable citizens, our seniors, many with underlying health issues," Turzai said. "This proposal, developed by medical experts in our state, is a direct response to the COVID-19 crisis here. These settings are not fully equipped to protect their residents; we need the expertise of Pennsylvania's outstanding academic medical experts, who are located in every region of the state."

As of May 7, two-thirds of COVID-19 deaths were persons who lived in a nursing or personal care home, Turzai said.

Turzai's legislation would establish a coordinated, collaborative public-private partnership approach of regional health system collaboratives, according to a statement issued by the speaker's office. These health collaboratives would administer and manage personnel, protocols, testing and expenditures to protect the seniors in these facilities.

According to Turzai, these health collaboratives would ensure consistency of programs, response, and study of clinical and public health outcomes.

The legislation would also provide an appropriation of $500 million from Pennsylvania's allotment of $3.9 billion in COVID-19 money from the federal government.

Safety Protocols

A bill that would require safety protocols for Pennsylvania nursing homes to be implemented during emergency disaster proclamations triggered by communicable disease is about to be introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate by state Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland.

Ward's bill would require nursing homes to follow guidance issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Protection upon an emergency declaration. The bill will also prohibit the admittance of any individual who is confirmed to have a communicable disease for which an emergency proclamation has been issued and still within the time frame of being infectious.

"The [Wolf] administration failed to protect our most vulnerable living in nursing homes," Ward said in a statement May 6. "The Department of Health ordered those facilities to accept COVID-19 patients, while at the same time our hospitals had available beds and better safety protocols in place to mitigate the spread."

She said that known COVID-19 patients may have been transported into nursing homes rather than remaining in hospitals with unoccupied beds.