PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For the first time in months, more than 200 people are in Philadelphia hospitals with COVID-19 infections. City officials are hoping the recently restored mask mandate will bring the number back down.
Acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole says the vast majority of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
Hospitalizations are a “lagging indicator,” though, since people don’t usually seek hospital treatment for a couple of weeks after infection, and Bettigole says she’s hopeful that the mask mandate reimposed two weeks ago will begin to show results.
"If the mask mandate is going to work, we should see a leveling off of infections in the next few days," she said.
Bettigole says the city did see an uptick in vaccinations after the mandate, but children are still a concern, especially with school starting.
"Children remain a small fraction of those who are hospitalized. What’s unusual is that children are hospitalized at all," Bettigole said.
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She says many parents are asking the health department how to keep children safe in school, but most cases are contracted at home -- "by family members, friends and other visitors, because home is where we let our guard down. We don’t wear masks and we don’t keep distance."
Children under 12 may not be able to get a COVID-19 vaccination, but Bettigole says adults can protect them by getting the shot themselves.
Nearly two-thirds of Philadelphia adults are fully vaccinated, she said, and full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine should spur more people to get the shot in the weeks ahead.
City officials expect that, by the end of this week, 80% of adults in Philadelphia will have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination.