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Deadline today to apply for business waiver

Pennsylvania businesses face a Friday deadline for seeking an exemption from Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown order.

Wolf ordered all “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shutter their physical locations until further notice to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, but established a waiver process for companies that believe they should be exempt.

The state received more than 34,000 waiver requests through Wednesday. The Department of Community and Economic Development has approved more than 5,600 requests and denied at least 8,600. More than 8,100 requests were filed by businesses that did not need them to continue to operate, agency spokeswoman Casey Smith said Thursday.

Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Friday.

Businesses that remain open to the public include grocery stores, pharmacies, hotels and motels, beer distributors, laundromats and gas stations. Restaurants are only open for take-out orders. The open list also includes farms, mines, food production and some manufacturing.

Car dealers, clothing stores and other retailers, salons and entertainment venues are among those on the shuttered list.

Through Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police issued 136 warnings to businesses violating the shutdown order. No business has been cited.

In other coronavirus developments Thursday:

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ONLINE LIQUOR STORE OVERWHELMED

As expected, demand far exceeded the capacity of Pennsylvania’s system of state-owned liquor stores to process online orders as sales resumed Wednesday.

Brick-and-mortar liquor stores are closed because of the virus pandemic, but nearly 278,000 people tried to place orders on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board website during the first day of digital sales. By way of comparison, the site attracted 32,300 users when the liquor agency recently released several sought-after but limited-availability whiskeys.

“As we expected, consumer interest and site traffic far exceeded our ability to accept orders,” a spokeswoman said Thursday.

For now, the state is limiting website access to prevent the system from crashing, giving only a limited number of randomly selected consumers access to shop. All others get a screen indicating the online store is closed.

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GUN PERMIT EXTENSION

Pennsylvania residents will be allowed to carry guns on expired permits.

Wolf granted an extension for holders of concealed carry permits. State police said that permits that expired on March 19 or later have been extended to May 30. The extension was granted because some county courthouses are closed due to the pandemic.