nHospitals, nursing homes and child care centers are asking Pennsylvania state government for more money to avoid closures amid a surge of coronavirus -related demands on staffing and equipment, and Pennsylvania’s corrections officers’ union wants the prison system to stop all transfers of inmates.

The demands came as the new cornavirus continued to spread in Pennsylvania, with the state reporting more than 200 more cases and another death.

Meanwhile, more businesses are challenging Gov. Tom Wolf’s order closing the physical locations of businesses determined to be “non-life-sustaining.”

In the meantime, Wolf has ordered schools closed through at least April 6 and ordered 5.5 million people in the state’s hardest-hit counties to stay home, other than going to work at a business that’s still open or another errand involving health and safety.

nThe state Department of Health on Tuesday reported more than 200 new cases, with the total to date now exceeding 850.

Allegheny County reported one more death, bringing the statewide total to at least seven. The victim was a woman in her late 70s and the county medical examiner was handling the case, the county said.

nLarry Blackwell, the president of the 11,000-member corrections officers’ union, said Tuesday that moving inmates between prisons risks unnecessarily spreading the virus between institutions, where it will be very difficult to stop it from spreading to other inmates and employees.

“The governor has called for all non-essential movement to halt, and this isn’t essential,” Blackwell said. “And the governor has the authority to shut down the movement of these prisoners. The counties, the state, let’s just freeze everything until we figure out what’s going on.”

No case of the coronavirus has been discovered in the state prison system where roughly 45,000 inmates are housed and 16,000 people work, prison and union officials say.

Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said through a spokeswoman that halting all transfers is not a “realistic plan at this point” and he urged corrections staff across Pennsylvania to “pull together” against the virus.

“We are doing everything we can to minimize the exposure to the system as a whole, but we are a system — and each facility in the system has a role,” Wetzel said.

The Department of Corrections has shut down some routine transfers between prisons, according to prison and union officials.

nPennsylvania State police say troopers issued 27 warnings, but no citations, based on Wolf’s directive that businesses deemed not life-sustaining close down their physical locations during the first day of enforcement on Monday.

The state police commissioner, Col. Robert Evanchick, said Tuesday that the overwhelming majority of people and businesses were complying voluntarily with the order.

Other forms of enforcement will follow the warnings, if needed, Evanchick said.

By Associated Press