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Tuesday 18 August 2020 | 11:10 p.m.
Shane Dunlap | Tribune Review
Derry’s Ricky Hilty (83) and Zach Revoir (right) celebrate a touchdown against Beaver Falls at Derry Area High School on November 1, 2019.
Sean Stipp | Tribune Review
Dr. Rachel Levine, Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, speaks during a joint press conference with Gov. Tom Wolf on June 24, 2020 at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
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If the PIAA takes the advice of Gov. Tom Wolf ignores and goes bankrupt, his administration will not turn his strong recommendation into a mandate.
“The mayor has been very clear about that: there are no plans to do that,” Secretary of State Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday.
Wolf’s administration wants to delay interscholastic and recreational youth sports until at least Jan. 1.
The PIAA board will decide on bankruptcy sports on Friday. PIAA executives were scheduled to meet Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee, a bilingual group of state lawmakers.
Levine, answering questions at a press conference, said she continues with Wolf’s recommendation, which was endorsed by the state Department of Health and Education. Levine has come under fire from Republican lawmakers over the specific data – if not lacking – used to support the recommendation for youth sports.
Levine cited national statistics while supporting the shutdown.
“School sports have not started, school has just started this week, so I can not use data from sports that have not officially started,” Levine said. ‘That’s what we used data from other states. Children in other states here are really no different than children, so our recommendation was based on that. ”
The state does not have sports-specific data, but has seen an increase in covid-19 infections among adolescents, she said.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of young people under 19 who have in Pennsylvania nearly 19 in Pennsylvania,” Levine said. ‘We’ve seen that. We may not be able to track it down through our case investigations into a specific game or exercise, but we have seen an increase and we are concerned about it. “
Chris Harlan is a Staffune Review Staff Writer. You can contact Chris via email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
