PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New cases of COVID-19 in Philadelphia are at their highest level since mid-May, and the city's top doctor is warning that, if this is another resurgence, it's likely to last through the winter.
New cases have climbed back up to an average of close to 200 a day, and Health Commissioner Tom Farley said that could be for any number of reasons.
"Maybe because of the colder weather, maybe because of the dryer air, maybe because people are indoors more because of the colder weather or maybe because people are becoming more complacent," he said.
Farley warns against the last one in particular.
He said the virus is still spreading primarily in households and small social gatherings, but contact tracers have identified a new culprit: people returning to offices to work.
"With that, we've had some individual circumstances where the spread appeared to have occurred between individual co-workers who got together over lunch and were not wearing masks," he explained.
He urged people who can work from home to do so, and everyone to keep wearing masks.
Schools seem to have a better track record.
Of some 50 schools in the city doing in-person instruction, only one has had an outbreak. The private Philadelphia School had 15 cases.
There have been isolated cases in 44 of the schools.
