BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
Gov. Tom Wolf cleared the way Wednesday for some restaurants to host some dine-in customers.
Restaurants in counties in the state’s yellow phase can serve dine-in customers if they have outdoor seating.
Restaurants still have to ensure at least 6 feet between customers at different tables. All customers must wear masks while entering and leaving but can take them off while seated.
Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties entered the less-restrictive yellow phase Friday.
Luzerne, Monroe and Pike counties will move from the red to yellow phase Friday. Lackawanna, also still red, will move to yellow June 5.
Dine-in eating remains forbidden inside a yellow-phase restaurant with takeout and delivery still allowed. Restaurants in green-phase counties may allow indoor seating, but with distancing limitations. On Friday, 18 counties move into the green phase, but none locally.
The state Department of Health also issued more detailed guidelines on managing restaurant employees and keeping restaurants sanitary.
Wolf also authorized professional sports teams to practice and play without spectators once they clear their plans for protecting players and other personnel with the health department.
Adam Marco, director of communications for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the local Triple-A minor league baseball team, said the team’s season depends on what Major League Baseball and its players union decide and what happens in other states with International League teams. The RailRiders play in the International League.
“Minor league baseball players are employees of the major league clubs,” Marco said. “So we have no control over what goes on or how today’s announcement would affect us … And while Pennsylvania may allow things, the International League has teams in New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Indiana.”
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147
