Philly pauses some reopening plans as cases increase
FOX 29’s Chris O’Connell reports.
PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia officials say they will pause some reopening plans after failing to reach the target coronavirus case count, but the city will still move to a modified version of the green reopening phase.
Earlier this month, Mayor Jim Kenney identified July 3 as a target date to move completely into the green phase, despite the city technically moving green with the rest of southeastern Pennsylvania last Friday.
The city says the daily case count is no longer decreasing and is more than 100 new cases per day. The goal of going green was to have daily case counts below 80.
Citing spikes in other states, and even parts of Pennsylvania, the health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, recommended that people avoid traveling to high-case areas and ask people traveling to those areas to undergo quarantine for 14 days.
The city will not resume indoor dining or reopening of gyms and gyms on Friday as originally planned. The pause could remain in force until at least August 1, but the situation will be evaluated every two weeks.
Among the activities and businesses that will be allowed to open on Friday under strict new guidelines are closed shopping malls, museums, libraries, the city’s casino.
Dr. Farley discussed the issue at Good Day Philadelphia on Monday and explained that the city was unlikely to “meet the goals we had set for going green.”
Philly pauses on some reopening plans including indoor dining, gyms after case surge
FOX 29’s Jeff Cole has the latest.
Dr. Farley stated Tuesday that there has been an increase in positive test results in younger patients that have been linked to social events, travel, and in particular trips to the Jersey shore.
“In the past two weeks, 34% of our cases have been under the age of 30, compared to 20% of the overall epidemic,” said Dr. Farely.
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On Friday, Dr. Farley stated that the increase in tests does not explain the increase in the case count because the percentage of positive tests has also increased.
While authorities say they are not currently considering closing businesses and activities that have already resumed as part of the previous reopening phases, Dr. Farely says a severe increase could lead to that.
He added Tuesday that the city hopes that pausing some parts of the reopening will avoid having to shut down other activities and businesses.
“We think it’s better to be cautious now and, unlike Texas and Florida, open restaurants and repent later,” Farley said.
On Friday, city leaders issued a mandatory order requiring residents to wear masks in all indoor and outdoor public settings if people are within six feet of people from different homes.
While officials say the Philadelphia police will not enforce the order, they hope the requirement will cause more people to wear masks and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, the city reporter 142 new cases of COVID-19, and five new deaths.
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