PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New daily COVID-19 case totals are finally starting to go back down in Philadelphia, but not enough to relax the mask mandate.
Acting Philadelphia Health Department Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole credited the city’s high vaccination rate for bringing new cases down to just over 200 a day, the lowest since mid-August, but not as low as they were in July.
“Right now, our hospitalizations are three times as high as they were in the heart of the summer," Dr. Bettigole said.
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"The case rates (are) better than they were, but still four times as high as they were in the heart of the summer.”
Dr. Bettigole said another concerning factor is the high case rates in the surrounding counties, despite their high vaccination rates.
Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties have had nearly double the amount of cases over the past 14 days as the city of Philadelphia, according to the New York Times COVID-19 data curator.
The City of Philadelphia has had 3,738 overall cases the last 14 days, meaning that there was one positive test for every 429 residents.
The four collar counties have had a combined 7,270 over that amount of time, a positive test for every 360 people.
“It doesn’t entirely make sense," she said.
"The only real difference is the mask mandate, so we will be keeping that in place for now, but constantly looking at those numbers to see what’s feasible.”
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Dr. Bettigole said the city is currently checking compliance with the vaccine mandate for nursing homes, health care workers and college students and staff that took effect last Friday. She said the preliminary data looks promising.
“Because of the high level of risk in nursing homes, we’re surveying them first," she said.
"As of Sunday, for sites that have reported, more than 94% of nursing home staff in Philadelphia have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine."
Dr. Bettigole said the city is also trying to get a more accurate picture of how many city employees are vaccinated. She estimates that about 65% of the workforce has received both shots.
