‘No time to relax’ as Pa., NJ prepare for a surge of cases | Coronavirus Newsletter

TL;DR: Four weeks into the region’s crisis, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have increased their stockpile of supplies, but they’re still falling short of the medical equipment they need, and which they believe could give them a shot at slowing the coronavirus’s spread. And some projections say there’s a chance Pennsylvania can avoid the disaster unfolding in neighboring states — as long as residents keep staying home.

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— Allison Steele (@AESteele, health@inquirer.com)

🏥 The US has more than 8,000 coronavirus deaths, and more than 300,000 confirmed cases. The virus has been blamed for killing 136 Pennsylvanians and 846 New Jersey residents.

🔒 The 1300 block of Walnut Street in Philadelphia will close to vehicular traffic starting Monday so that officials can turn the Holiday Inn Express there into a quarantine site.

🚒 The assistant fire chief of the Tullytown Fire Company in Bucks County has died of the coronavirus.

💰 U.S. Postal Service workers are asking for hazard pay during the pandemic.

👐 A 31-year-old Mexican man was the first migrant to test positive for COVID-19 at an ICE detention center in Pennsylvania.

📈As of Saturday evening, there are more than 6,800 reported cases in the Philadelphia area. Track the spread here.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has said the ongoing stay-at-home order is crucial to the efforts to keep the state’s hospital system from “collapsing" under an expected surge in coronavirus patients. In New Jersey, where there are three times as many coronavirus cases as in Pennsylvania, officials fear hospitals could run out of space in weeks.

State officials on both sides of the river are also racing against the clock to collect the equipment they say is needed to avoid a disaster: face masks and gloves for health-care workers, ventilators for the critically ill, more beds for the sick in the event that the region’s hospitals overflow.

“If we do not all stay home, then we will see the worst-case scenarios," Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine said last week.

For many engaged couples about to host weddings, the pandemic meant canceling long-planned dreams of flowers, music, and celebrating with family. But for some, that was no reason not to get married now.

One local couple got hitched in a living room, hours before Gov. Wolf’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Another streamed an in-house ceremony on Facebook Live. "It kind of provided a lot of clarity as to what’s important,” Newlywed Jeremy Howe told Inquirer reporter Ellie Silverman. “We just want to be married. That is all that matters to us.”

🏀 Two months after his death, Lower Merion’s Kobe Bryant is going into the Hall of Fame.

🍴 How tines have changed: the odd history behind forks, clocks, and other household staples.

🏈 The Inquirer’s longtime football writer Paul Domowitch selected his NFL All-Decade team, and it includes more than a couple of Eagles.

Is it acceptable to hang out with your friends as long as you stay six feet apart? The answer is complicated, experts say.

Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter.

Organizers of a long-running science fair in New Jersey saw the pandemic as an opportunity for a teachable moment, so on Saturday the Coriell Institute for Medical Research’s annual science fair was held remotely over webcams. Jean-Pierre Issa, the Coriell Institute’s chief executive officer, told reporter Vinny Vella, "There are always barriers to doing science, and this barrier is no more insurmountable than barriers scientists have to overcome all the time.”

News about coronavirus is changing quickly. Go to inquirer.com/coronavirus to make sure you are seeing the newest information.