Philadelphia reinstated its indoor mask mandate Monday in hopes of avoiding record rates of infection and hospitalization seen during omicron’s spike earlier this year.
The city in February established COVID response levels that allowed it to roll back mitigation strategies. Up until last week, it was “all clear,” meaning residents did not have to wear masks in indoor public places or show proof of vaccination.
While hospitalizations remain low, Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said Monday that the city was now seeing an average of 142 new cases daily, more than 50% higher than 10 days ago.
“This looks like we may be at the start of a new COVID wave,” she said. “We have reached the threshold for moving out of all clear and into mask precautions.”
The mask requirements go into effect immediately, but the health department won’t begin enforcing it until April 18.
“Our city remains open,” Bettigole said. “By wearing masks, we can continue to go about our daily lives.”
While the omicron variant was less symptomatic than previous waves, Bettigole said 750 Philadelphia residents died during the variant’s peak, which saw more than 3,500 new cases a day in the city — more than three times the peak during previous waves.
Now the so-called “stealth” variant, omicron BA.2, is leading to a new spike. While it is still unknown how this variant works, Bettigole said the hope is to avoid the hospitalizations and deaths that have followed previous waves.
“I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do this again,” she said. “I wish this pandemic was over just as much as any of you. It’s my hope our actions will hep slow the spread of COVID and our ERs won’t get so crowded people can’t get the help they need.”
The order does apply to Philadelphia public schools, which currently are on spring break and had already been required to have students and staff wear masks for at least a week after they return, Bettigole said.
According to a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data, Philadelphia added the most new cases overall in the past week, with 1,193 cases. That was followed by Allegheny County, with 664 cases, and Montgomery County, with 585. Weekly case counts rose in 52 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week’s pace were in Philadelphia, Allegheny and Chester counties.
Statewide, new coronavirus cases leaped in Pennsylvania in the week ending Sunday, rising 70.3% as 6,435 cases were reported. The previous week had 3,778 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Pennsylvania ranked 24th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis.
Within Pennsylvania, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Pike County with 145 cases per 100,000 per week; Bradford County with 139; and Susquehanna County with 129. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.
