Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, voiced his concern after learning Carbon County was not among the next group of counties that would move into the “yellow phase” of Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan on May 15. The 13 counties listed in the governor’s announcement are all located in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Heffley said, “I joined many Carbon County residents in being disappointed with the governor’s announcement to extend our stay-at-home order to June 4. I think the governor really needs to take a hard look at our metrics. We’ve had 30 new COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days and our hospitalization rates are down. We have plenty of capacity in our local health care networks.”

He said he has spoken with health care networks, the business community and residents.

“Carbon County is ready to take that next step, and our numbers show it. We can go from red to yellow and start to safely reopen parts of our economy.”

Heffley said he will push for Carbon County to reopen.

“Residents have done a great job in slowing down this disease, and I’m calling on the governor to continue to monitor the numbers and work with us to get the local economy going again.”