Last week after rising COVID Omicron variant cases triggered indoor mask mandate rules in Philadelphia, this week's figures have dropped low enough that the mask mandate has been lifted after just four days.
Just days after re-imposing the indoor mask mandate in Philadelphia, city officials confirmed Thursday night that they will end the requirement, citing improving numbers for COVID-19 hospitalizations and confirmed infections.
A city spokesperson said officials will release more details Friday morning.
“Due to decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts, the City will move to strongly recommending masks in indoor public spaces as opposed to a mask mandate. Given the latest data, the Board of Health voted tonight to rescind the mandate,” Kevin Lessard, spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney, said in an email Thursday night.
Earlier on Thursday, Kenney defended the controversial mandate that has made his city an outlier in the national COVID-19 response.
”I have committed through this whole dilemma, this whole pandemic, to follow the guidance of health professionals,” Kenney said Thursday in a video interview with the Washington Post, indicating, “and that’s what we’re doing here.”
Kenney expressed hope that slightly declining hospitalization rates could be a sign the requirement is already showing positive results.
The number of people with COVID in city hospitals dropped to 65 Thursday, the lowest figure reported in a week.
The recent peak of 82 was reached Sunday, the day before the mask mandate took effect.
The return of the Philadelphia mandate on Monday collided with a federal judge’s ruling that lifted the federal mask requirement on flights and mass transportation.
The conflicting rules led to confusion and frustration exacerbated when SEPTA said they would follow the judge’s order and end masking on trains, trolleys, and buses, as well as in stations and concourses. Philadelphia International Airport said masks would be required in terminals because of the city restriction, although coverings could be removed on planes, because airlines lifted their requirements.
On Wednesday, a group of Philadelphia business owners and residents filed a motion seeking an emergency injunction with Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court to immediately suspend the mandate, arguing that the restriction was causing them “irreparable harm.”
The federal government also filed a notice of appeal Wednesday for the ruling on masking on transportation.
Mayor Kenney's mandate would have certainly been enjoined given the federal mandate being lifted by a Trump judge this week, so he would have lost on both politics and legality.
The decision for America to just live with an extra 500,000 deaths per year due to COVID was made some time ago, and no government, local, state, or federal, will take responsibility for stopping it, because the American people won't put up with the inconvenience anymore.
I'd say we deserve it, except we're talking about thousands of dead per week.
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