Oct 6, 2020 3 min read

The Wolf administration has amended its order regarding safe crowd limits during the COVID-19 pandemic to permit fans at Steelers games and more spectators at high school football games.

The outdoor limit will change to 25% of capacity for venues that seat 2,000 or fewer people. The former limit was set at 250 people, and the changes will allow 7,500 fans, players and coaches inside Heinz Field for Steelers home games, beginning Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf’s order indicates.

“It’s more than what we had before,” said Jesse Wallace, superintendent of Laurel Highlands School District in Fayette County.

He said the amended order will permit another 200 people in the district’s football stadium, which seats 2,000 people.

Fayette County had a new death from the virus Tuesday, taking its death toll from the disease to eight. There were no new COVID-19 deaths reported that day in Washington or Greene counties.

The virus has killed 8,244 Pennsylvanians since March after 17 new deaths were reported statewide Tuesday.

The changes will not have much of an impact on Fayette County-sponsored events because they have been canceled because of the pandemic through the end of the year, county Commission Chairman Dave Lohr said.

Lohr said he expects community Halloween parades in the county also will be canceled.

He said the new crowd limits will have more of an effect on private events, such as weddings.

The new indoor occupancy limits range between 20% of maximum occupancy to 10%, depending on the size of a facility. The outdoor crowd limit now ranges between 25 and 15% of maximum occupancy.

The changes are making a lot of high school football fans happy in the Canon-McMillan School District in Washington County, its athletic director Frank Vulcano said.

“Yes. It’s definitely making people happy,” Vulcano said.

He said the district’s stadium seats 4,000 people, meaning that 800 fans will be allowed to attend Friday’s game, including about 80 students.

Most school districts didn’t “open the flood gates” to football games after a federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled Sept. 14 Wolf’s original crowd limit order unconstitutional, Laurel Highlands’ Wallace said. An appeals court later stayed the judge’s order.

Washington County Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said she still believes the public should be allowed to decide “what they can or cannot do at this time.”

“I remain frustrated with the governor,” Irey Vaughan said.

She said she is being careful when in public and wears a face mask to protect others from the virus.

Washington County added 16 new cases of the virus to its total that climbed to 1,465. Greene County saw one new case, taking its total to 195. Fayette County’s case count reached 845 after 14 new cases were reported there Tuesday.