MONTROSE, Pa. — Most of our viewing area is on the decline when it comes to new cases of coronavirus, except one county seeing a bit of a spike in cases, and that's likely keeping it from going green.
Susquehanna County saw the most new cases in northeastern and central Pennsylvania in the last two days.
"It'll be 13 weeks on Friday."
That's a milestone Lisa McGraw never wanted to reach - 13 weeks with no business, and no paycheck. She owns Lisa's Cutting Edge, a hair salon in Montrose.
"It's been a nightmare. I have busted my hump for 15 years to open a business and have it going, and I have gotten nothing to help keep my business afloat. Nothing," McGraw said.
McGraw was disappointed once again last Friday when Susquehanna County did not make the list of counties that could move into the green phase of the state's reopening plan.
When you look at a map of counties in the yellow and green phases, Susquehanna stands out. It's a rural county with a low population and a low total number of cases.
But the county also stands out for having the highest number of new cases in our area for the past few days, a setback that's not helping the county make its case that it's ready to go green.
"We didn't make it this round, and now this weekend, unfortunately, had some more cases, so we'll just keep plugging along, you know, and I know people have made calls and they're calling the governor's office. And really, it's out of our hands at this point, as far as the commissioners go," said Susquehanna County Commissioner Elizabeth Arnold.
People who live and work here say it's especially frustrating to see other rural counties that are nearby move into the green phase.
"My customers call me every day. I get 15 to 20 calls a day and instant messages and text messages and stuff every day, 'You need to come back, you need to come back,'" McGraw said.
Jeff Tyler owns Hawk Insurance Agency, also in Montrose, and Lisa McGraw is one of his clients. He shares her frustration.
"We have very low numbers. Apparently, there's one spot in the very southeastern corner where all of the trouble is, and the whole rural county is being penalized for that," said Tyler.
That southeastern corner he's referring to is in Forest City. Nearly half of the total cases in the county have been in Forest City and all of those in one nursing home.
Of the 148 total cases in the county, 102 have been in nursing homes. Seventy of them have been in one place - Forest City Nursing and Rehab Center. All but one of the deaths in the county occurred there, too.
Loren Stone, CEO of Endless Mountains Health Systems, also says testing has increased, which may have led to the recent uptick in positive cases.
"There's access to more testing for individual so those asymptomatic individuals who, back in March in April would not have normally been tested because of the criteria, may now be getting tested and showing a positive result. That doesn't mean that they're acutely ill," said Stone.
"We can't control what happens in the nursing homes, you know, you get into a place - a contained area like that, you know, it's bound to happen," said Commissioner Arnold.
In Montrose, people feel like they're being punished for high numbers of cases in nursing homes that are miles away from here.
"We have these senior homes, and God bless these people, but once it gets in there, I mean, whew, it's nasty. My mother's 81 years old, I have compassion for that, but why are we all being penalized for that?" asked Tyler.
Susquehanna County Commissioner Elizabeth Arnold urges residents and business owners to hang in there and be patient. But once that patience runs out - call the governor's office.
"That's all we can do - hope and make phone calls."