PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Phillies have reached the 85% vaccination threshold among players and personnel, allowing them to ease some COVID-19 restrictions, according to Phillies manager Joe Girardi.
"I don't think we need to wear our Kinexon [contact tracing] devices anymore," Girardi said on Wednesday's Phillies Radio Network pregame show. "It's good that more and more guys are getting vaccinated, and you feel better about when you're traveling around and doing things that they're feeling safe."
The Phils are one of the last teams to reach the 85% mark, which Major League Baseball set as the benchmark for loosening protocols.
There have been instances this season where the Phils have had to put players on the COVID-19 list because they were unvaccinated close contacts. At the same time, the Phils recently lost a few vaccinated players who had breakthrough positive tests.
From the start of the season, Phillies brass have promoted getting vaccinated and insisted that they educated their players on the effectiveness of the vaccines. Still, they acknowledged, for some, it's a personal choice.
