By Nathan Bottiger

Eagle Staff Writer

As the nation discusses reopening, Gov. Tom Wolf outlined his six standards for Pennsylvania to move from quarantine, but offered no timeline.

“It has to be a staged approach, and it will be,” Wolf said during a Friday livestream news conference.

Wolf’s announcement followed Thursday’s coronavirus briefing by President Donald Trump in which the president laid out “a phased and deliberate approach” to restoring the economy.

“We’ve done our best to provide relief, and now we need to start talking about reopening,” Wolf said.

The plan offered few details. It does not include a timetable or spell out the metrics that Wolf and his administration will use to decide that Pennsylvania can begin emerging from the coronavirus pandemic after weeks of social distancing.

He said his own plans for reopening the state’s economy will be gradual and regionally-based, including six standards that would be in place throughout the process.

The approach will be data-driven.

The state will give recommendations to employers, individuals and health care facilities.

Proper personal protective equipment and testing must be available in the area.

A monitoring and surveillance program will be required to allow the state government to deploy further mitigation.

Protections for vulnerable populations will continue.

Limitations on large gatherings unrelated to employment will continue through reopening.

“Next week I’ll be outlining more specific approaches to the reopening process,” Wolf said.

Wolf shut down businesses deemed “non-life-sustaining,” closed schools through the end of the academic year, and ordered all 12.8 million Pennsylvania residents to stay at home unless absolutely necessary.

Just this week, the Wolf administration ordered people to wear masks inside supermarkets, pharmacies and other stores.

State health officials said the restrictions have thus far worked to slow the rate of infections and prevent hospitals from running out of bed space, ventilators and other supplies.

“These efforts have shown signs of success,” Wolf said. “Now I’m asking for you to again believe in our commonwealth. I’m asking you to stay the course.”

But the pandemic and business shutdown order have caused economic devastation, throwing at least 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents out of work. Wolf has been under increasing pressure from legislators, small business owners and others to relax the restrictions. Protesters plan to gather Monday in Harrisburg to demonstrate against the shutdown.

Under Wolf’s plan, employers and other organizations that are permitted to reopen will be required to follow guidance from the state Department of Health and other state agencies, and will have to close again if there’s a “significant” COVID-19 outbreak.

A “strong testing regime” must be in place in areas that are permitted to reopen, along with a monitoring and surveillance program. And limitations on mass gatherings will remain in place for the duration of the reopening process, according to plan documents.

The state needs to be careful and deliberate about reopening the economy, with the flexibility to respond to new outbreaks, Wolf said. Doing otherwise, he contended, would prolong the crisis.

As government officials discuss when and how to reopen the economy, Butler Health System has been looking at when and how they will resume more services at its regional facilities.

This week, Butler Health System officials announced they will begin looking at resuming elective and other services in the future.

BHS spokeswoman Jana Panther said in her daily media update Friday that the local health care system is studying federal and state guidelines, as well as communicating with other hospitals in the region.

As of now, no date has been selected for BHS to resume services.

When pushed by reporters regarding more specifics about health care systems, Wolf deferred to announce more later.

“Next week I’ll be talking about more specifics when we talk about reopening, and I think that’s an appropriate place to talk about that,” he said.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.