(The Center Square) - Republicans at the county and state levels on Wednesday pressed for more details after an announcement from the Democratic administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro of two "measles-associated" deaths of Lancaster County residents.

Meanwhile, the Grand Old Party also blasted newly proposed state regulations from the administration pertaining to disease handling, which they said seemed to ignore what one called "dangerous government overreach."

On Tuesday, Shapiro and Health Secretary Debra Bogen appeared in the county at a press conference to announce the two deaths. They urged the public to receive the "MMR" vaccine that covers measles, but withheld any other specific information on the deaths.

Shapiro said they were the first such deaths in the state in 35 years.

"We hope and we pray that those deaths will be the last," Shapiro said. "This illness and death from measles is completely preventable."

Republican Sen. Scott Martin of Lancaster County on Wednesday referred to it as a "media event" of which he had not been made aware ahead of time.

"We have not been able to independently verify what they reported," Martin said of Shapiro's announcement.

Republican Rep. Dave Zimmerman of Lancaster County said the administration "absolutely" should release more information. The situation illustrated the need for a bill he sponsored that would require the Health Department to release county-level data on disease outbreaks to officials within that county.

Josh Parsons, Republican vice chairman of the county board of commissioners, said he spoke to county Coroner Stephen Diamantoni about the situation, and Diamantoni could not confirm any measles deaths.

The coroner, Parsons said, confirmed that an infant who passed away "had measles" but did not "die of measles."

"They have zero measles deaths," Parsons said of the coroner's office.

Attempts to contact Diamantoni on Wednesday were not successful.

Parsons ran an unsuccessful campaign for state Senate last year. The Democrat who defeated him, Sen. James Malone of Lancaster County, issued a statement on Tuesday that said he encouraged "everyone to protect themselves and their families by getting vaccinated if they are unvaccinated" and staying informed about outbreaks by monitoring an online state dashboard.

Lancaster County is the core of the largest settlement of Amish people in the nation. Zimmerman said that within the range of Amish, Mennonite, and other "plain" groups, there are sub-groups whose members prefer not to be vaccinated.

That much was evident in conversations in the county on Wednesday.

Kirk Ewing, a 44-year-old equipment operator who has lived in West Cocalico Township in the county for 25 years, said nearly anyone familiar with the county who heard about the measles outbreak would have "in the back of their mind" that it may involve the plain community.

Sixty-eight-year-old Gary Youndt, a retired lead worker at a hatmaking facility, said he had lived there his entire life and had plain people among his ancestors. A significant number of people within that community, he said, do not like to get vaccinated.

A 27-year-old Mennonite woman who did not want to be identified said some people in the plain community felt it was not "safe" to receive vaccines, but she was not among them. Referring to the people close to her, she said, "We are all vaccinated, so I am not concerned about measles."

On Tuesday, Bogen said there have been 393 cases of measles reported across the state, with roughly half of them in Lancaster County. In every instance, she said, the person suffering from measles had not been fully vaccinated.

"Because the MMR vaccine essentially eliminated measles here in the United States decades ago, people have forgotten how serious it can be," Bogen said.

Meanwhile, the top Republican in the House, Rep. Jesse Topper of Bedford County, said the proposed new rules from the administration related to disease handling seem "to be devoid of any understanding of our recent history of dangerous government overreach and the resulting public backlash."

Martin, the senator, said there was no need to "relive the department’s debacle of woefully mismanaging the state’s response to COVID." He noted that voters in 2021 voted to limit the governor's powers in an emergency.

Rep. Kathy Rapp of Warren County, the top Republican on the Health Committee, said a written response to the proposed regulations was being prepared.