PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia health officials said Wednesday that 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered in the city.
Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said it took literally thousands of people to work on getting to this point.
"Through snow storms and heat waves and tornadoes, during the most difficult 18 months that any of us have worked through, we did something no one thought was possible: 2 million vaccines in nine months," said Dr. Bettigole.
"I don't know that I'll ever be able to express enough gratitude to everyone who's contributed to this effort. I also don't know that we'll ever be able to fully thank those Philadelphians who wore their masks, socially distanced, stayed home when they were sick and, most important, been vaccinated."
Despite the city's high vaccination rates, new cases continue to average about 280 every day.
That's down slightly from the initial surge caused by the delta variant last month, but Dr. Bettigole theorizes that the start of school year is keeping case rates somewhat high.
"I'm actually — frankly — happy that they haven't gone up further, given that we've opened schools," said Dr. Bettigole.
"Opening schools means that we are mingling children that are unvaccinated, and also that we are testing much more. We also have colleges and universities starting, so I think the fact that we're plateaued is actually very good."
Dr. Bettigole reminded health care workers that they have until October 15th to be fully vaccinated. That's a city mandate, along with wearing masks indoors.
Photo: NBC10
