State’s COVID-19 emergency declaration formally ends

HARRISBURG (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration on Tuesday certified the results of the May primary election, bringing a formal end to the disaster emergency declaration that the Democrat first issued at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid signed the certification Tuesday afternoon, her agency said.

Certification formalizes the results of the May 18 primary election, in which voters approved Republican-backed constitutional amendments giving lawmakers broad new power over extending and ending disaster emergency declarations.

The Republican-controlled Legislature voted last week to end the disaster emergency declaration, but to extend the life of hundreds of regulatory waivers that Wolf’s administration approved over the last 15 months under the authority of the declaration.

The bill, signed by Wolf on Friday, allows the waivers to last through Sept. 30, unless Wolf’s administration ends them sooner.