Gov. Tom Wolf said counties who intend to reopen against his administration’s coronavirus prevention orders are akin to military deserters abandoning the fight.

Wolf responded to counties including Schuylkill who say they plan to allow businesses to reopen despite the governor’s stay-at-home orders and orders shutting down nonessential businesses.

“To those politicians who decide to cave in to this coronavirus, they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act,” Wolf said. “These folks are choosing to desert in the face of the enemy in the middle of a war we are winning and must win.’

Wolf spoke Monday morning for the first time since Schuylkill, York, Dauphin, Franklin and Beaver counties announced plans to move into the “yellow” phase with or without his permission.

The first 24 counties were moved from the red phase to the yellow phase on Friday. Thirteen more will move to yellow later this week.

However several counties still in the red phase, with the most restrictive prevention measures, said they would move to the yellow phase regardless.

Wolf directed his comments at county commissioners and state legislators who are encouraging businesses still in the “red” zone to operate against his orders shutting them down temporarily.

“To the politicians urging businesses to risk their lives and risk the lives of their customers or employees by reopening prematurely - they need to understand they are engaging in behavior that is both selfish and unsafe,” he said.

Wolf said his orders have been upheld by the Pennsylvania and U.S. Supreme courts.

Wolf said he has no plans to sue counties who reopen against orders, but he could penalize them in other ways.

Wolf said he won’t give “CARES” act funding to counties that reopen against orders.

While much of the CARES money is earmarked at the federal level, Wolf said he has discretion over some of the funds and won’t designate them to counties who are reopening against orders.

“We can’t afford to have people desert. The reward for desertion can’t be that you’re just like everybody else, and get the discretionary funding. Discretionary funding will go to those places that are doing everything they ought to do to keep their residents safe.”

To business owners who are considering flouting the orders, Wolf repeated his statement that the enemy is the virus, not the regulations.

But he also warned that there could be consequences for ignoring his orders.

“By opening before the evidence suggests you should, you’re taking undue risk with the safety of your customers. That’s not only morally wrong, it’s bad business,” he said.

Wolf said the politicians advocating for businesses to ignore the orders put those businesses at risk of losing their state business license, health certificate and certificate of occupancy.

Wolf said it’s likely that insurers would not cover claims from a business which is operating illegally.

Asked if the Pennsylvania Insurance Department would refer defiant businesses to their insurers, Wolf said they would not, but if insurers ask for guidance they will provide it.

“Insurance does not cover things that happen to businesses who are breaking the law,” Wolf said.

A few hours before Wolf spoke, President Donald Trump used twitter to voice his support for Pennsylvanians who are defying the governor’s orders.

“The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails,” Trump said. He added that Democrats are moving slowly across the US for political purposes and would keep the country closed through the general election if they could.

Wolf responded to Trump’s tweet during the press conference. Wolf said he didn’t know how a reopening could take place quickly and still accomplish the goal of keeping residents safe. Wolf said taking a measured approach is the responsible thing to do.

“The irresponsible thing to do as I said earlier is just willy-nilly go off and pretend we can wave a magic wand and go back into business and suspend the reality that this virus is around us,” he said.

After Wolf spoke, Republican leaders in Harrisburg as well as Sen. Pat Toomey criticized his response.

Toomey said it is wrong to withhold funds from the CARES act to make people comply with his “increasingly misguided” lockdown policy.

“Rather than punishing taxpayers by withholding federal aid that they helped to fund, our state government should be facilitating the safe reopening of our economy,” he said.

Senate Republican leaders Joe Scarnati and Jake Corman issued a joint statement saying that they will put forth legislation to give local communities more control over reopening. They said Wolf has lost willingness of the people to be governed.

“Local elected officials are the ones hearing from their neighbors and communities instead of sitting in Harrisburg or on Mount Wolf. Instead of name calling, he needs to follow our lead and engage with local elected officials who are the best measure when it comes to knowing if their communities can return to their livelihoods in a safe way,” they said.