PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia will lift some of its COVID-19 restrictions on Jan. 4 as long as the state gives the green light. But others, including indoor dining, will remain in effect until Jan. 15.
The city had imposed restrictions on residents and businesses that were meant to last until at least Jan. 1. The state of Pennsylvania followed suit and imposed restrictions meant to expire on Jan. 4.
Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Farley said Philadelphia is recovering from the Thanksgiving surge, and new cases are going down just in time for a Christmas surge, which he expects will be closely followed by a New Year's Eve surge.
“We’ll begin to see the effect of Christmas in the last few days of December and we’ll begin to see the effect of New Year’s on about Jan. 5. These two spikes will likely run together and unfortunately may feed off each other,” he said.
With that timing, Farley said the city won’t lift restrictions on the riskiest activities.
Restrictions that will remain in place through Jan. 15 include:
- Indoor dining
- Indoor gatherings and events
- Theaters
- Casinos
- Colleges
- Indoor organized sports
Some less-risky activities that may resume on Jan. 4, if the state lifts restrictions, include:
- Museums
- Gyms
- Outdoor sports
- In-person high school
- Outdoor catered events
Farley said he wants to have two or three weeks of breathing room before making any decisions.
Meanwhile, he said, the city will do what it can afford to help restaurants.
He said the city is expecting 78,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 22,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine. There are about 100,000 people in the city in high-risk health-care categories, and it will take a couple of weeks to administer the vaccine to all of them.
He clarified that next week, nursing home and long-term care facility residents and workers will begin receiving their vaccinations. Right now, they are still working on hospital workers.
Farley said 9,000 people have been vaccinated so far; 34,000 more doses are due this week, and the city will be getting 10,000 doses a week after that. At that rate, full coverage is several months away.