Harrisburg, Pa. (WENY)-- The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported nearly 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 across the state Thursday. Meanwhile, Governor Tom Wolf extended school closures for the rest of the academic year. 

“Closing schools and businesses is a hard decision. It’s hard for our kids to not be in school,” says Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. “But it’s the right thing to do to save lives,” she adds.

“This was not an easy decision but closing schools until the end of the academic year is in the best interest of our students, school employees and families,” Governor Wolf said in a release.

Governor Wolf made the decision after consulting with Dr. Levine and Education Secretary Pedro Rivera. Schools are encouraged to provide continuity of education through any appropriate and accessible means. 

“As schools and communities adapt to the prolonged school closure, PDE will continue to work with our state, educational, and business and nonprofit partners to meet the needs of students,” Secretary Rivera said in a release.

Under the state’s directive, schools can begin summer school program the day after the academic school year ends. It’s all in an effort to continue social distancing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“Throughout this pandemic, our best protection has been and continues to be the social distancing and staying home,” Dr. Levine says.

Students and families will still be able to pick up daily meals at designated sites. Non-essential businesses remain closed until further notice, and counties remain under the Governor’s “Stay at Home” order until April 30th at the earliest.

Dr. Levine discussed what the lifting of restrictions would look like when the time comes. She says it would be extremely dangerous to roll back all restrictions in one day, so it’s going to need to happen over a period of time.

“It’ll have to go in a very slow, progressive fashion. Perhaps community by community, county by county watching the situation very carefully for any increases that would require us to re-institute something like social distancing,” explains Dr. Levine. “We are making plans about how that might happen in the future, but we need to follow the timeline as the virus determines it,” she adds.

The number of COVID-19 cases rose by 1,989 today, bringing the statewide total to 18,228. Unfortunately, a new total of 338 Pennsylvania residents have passed away as a result of this virus.