PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia is reporting its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in five months, and the health commissioner warns the city is entering a dangerous period with the virus.
For the last week, the city’s been averaging nearly 300 new cases a day, up from about 200 the week before.
Health Commissioner Tom Farley said some of the increase is a result of more testing, but it also appears to be the beginning of a fall/winter surge.
“We anticipate further rapid increases of this infection in Philadelphia, which means we’re entering a difficult, dangerous period of this epidemic, possibly the worst period of the entire epidemic,” Farley said.
He did not announce any new restrictions in response, but said that could be a possibility. He said individual actions are the biggest determinant of success in fighting the virus, and that includes some hard choices for the holidays.
“We’re not going to get past this epidemic by Thanksgiving or by Hanukkah or by Christmas. Family gatherings right now are simply very dangerous,” Farley said.
He noted some other trouble spots are carpools, small get-togethers and family events like wedding and showers.
And he said contact tracing has found a slight increase — 16%, up from 11% — in people testing positive who mention eating in a restaurant before becoming infected.
Contract tracing, he added, has become problematic because of the high number of new cases. Tracers are not going to be able to contact everyone and they are going to be asking patients to call contacts themselves, rather than doing it for them.
The increase in cases has brought the city close to the state threshold for closing schools, but Farley said for now, he is advising the 50 private schools with in-person instruction that they can stay open.
The news is a little better on the seriousness of the cases.
There has not been a significant increase in fatalities. With the increase in cases, and hospitalizations currently at 211, it remains far below the peak of about 1,000 in April.
Farley said the number of tests has increased to more than 4,000 a day from 2,500 just a few weeks ago, so they likely are picking up more cases that would have gone undetected in the spring when testing materials were scarce.