Monroe and Schuylkill counties will follow Carbon into the yellow reopening phase next Friday.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday that eight more counties will move into the yellow phase at midnight on May 29, with the remaining 10 counties following by June 5.

In addition, 17 counties already in the yellow phase will move to green on May 29.

“We know not only that we succeeded in slowing case growth, but that our actions, our collective decisions to stay at home and avoid social contact – we know that saved lives,” Gov. Wolf said. “My stay-at-home order did exactly what it was intended to do: It saved lives and it bought us valuable time.”

Wolf said Friday’s announcements are based on models from Carnegie Mellon University as well as the capacity for contact tracing and testing. The metric of 50 new cases per 100,000 people was considered, but it was not the only factor.

Wolf said the entire state has seen the number of new cases reported go down each of the last two weeks. He said Pennsylvania is one of only 19 states who can say that right now.

By moving into the yellow phase, counties are no longer subject to stay at home orders. Child care centers can reopen, and gatherings of up to 25 people are permitted. Under the green phase, restaurants, bars, barber shops, gyms, theaters, casinos and malls can reopen at 50 percent of their normal capacity.

Many officials in Monroe and Schuylkill County felt that their regions have been ready to move to the yellow phase.

Two weeks ago, a task force led by the Schuylkill Commissioners sent the Governor a letter asking to move to the yellow phase. For a short time, they threatened to move ahead against the Governor’s orders.

Following Wolf’s announcement, the Commissioners said in a statement that the Governor’s announcement represents the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ the county has been looking for.

“(We) would like to thank all of the members of our task force as well as all of the citizens of the county for doing their part in getting us into the yellow phase. However, our work is not finished as we need to follow the yellow guidelines and look forward to a hopefully quick move into the green,” the statement said.

State Rep. Jerry Knowles (R-Schuylkill/Carbon/Berks), a member of the task force, said the announcement was good news, but blamed the governor for leaving many Schuylkill residents out of work by not allowing them to working through the shutdown while observing CDC recommendations.

“My heart goes out to those people across our region who are not working and haven’t received a penny of unemployment compensation because of a system that doesn’t perform properly,” Knowles said.

Prior to Wolf’s announcement, a group of Republican legislators representing Monroe and Pike counties sent a letter asking him to move them to the yellow phase on Saturday. The letter was signed by Reps. Rosemary Brown (R-Monroe/Pike), Jack Rader (R- Monroe) and Mike Peifer (R-Pike/Wayne) and Sens. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne/Pike/Susquehanna/Wayne/Wyoming) and Mario Scavello (R-Monroe/Northampton).

In their letter, they said moving to the yellow phase was needed for residents’ health, economic mental and societal well-being. They pointed to the area’s declining case totals, and the availability of local hospitals, as evidence for why the county should reopen.

After Wolf’s announcement, Brown said she’s very pleased to be moving forward. But she maintained that reopening as soon as possible is vital to helping the communities recover from the impact of the virus shutdown.

“Residents of both counties desperately need a move forward, they are ready, responsible and have been successful in their mitigation efforts of flattening the curve,” Brown said.

The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau said the announcement is good news for the counties in their region as they enter the busy summer tourist season. CEO Chris Barrett said those businesses have used the shutdown to plan for how they will comply with CDC guidelines and protect customers and staff.

“We’re just grateful to make progress and go to next steps and see the light at the end of hte tunnel become brighter,” Barrett said.

Monroe County Commissioner Sharon Laverdure heard from people on both sides in recent weeks -- some in favor of reopening, and others who thought it was too soon. She said she waited for the Governor’s decision and was pleased when he announced they would move to yellow next week.

“We don’t want a resurgence by any means. We still have to be respectful of some of those guidelines the Governor has put out for everybody,” she said.