Philadelphia has become the first major city to reinstate the indoor mask mandate as COVID-19 cases rise.
Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole in a press conference said, “mask precautions begin Monday, but in order to provide a one-week education period for businesses, masks will be required in all indoor public spaces as of Monday, April 18.”
She continued, “If we fail to act now, knowing that every previous wave of infections has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations, and then a wave of deaths, it will be too late for many of our residents,” said Bettigole, noting about 750 Philadelphia residents died in the wintertime omicron outbreak. “This is our chance to get ahead of the pandemic, to put our masks on until we have more information about the severity of this new variant.”
Philadelphia made the mask mandate move with daily case counts and hospitalizations ticking above its own self-imposed benchmarks in recent days.
There was an average of 142 new cases in Philadelphia in recent days, and 46 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
According to 6ABC.com, “The health department says the city will move to Level 2: Mask Precautions under its COVID-19 Response guidelines.
Level 2 is reached when the city meets two of the following three criteria:
Average new cases per day are less than 225
Hospitalizations are less than 100
Cases have increased by more than 50% in the previous 10 days.
Under Level 2, you must wear a mask when indoors in public places.
However, there is no vaccine or testing requirement for places that serve food or drink under Level 2.
The city had lifted its indoor mask mandate and moved to the All-Clear Level 1 on Wednesday, March 2. Now, 41 days later, the city is bringing it back.”
Mask precautions began Monday, but in order to provide a one-week education period for businesses, masks will be required in all indoor public spaces as of Monday, April 18.
