Another Philly First. City reinstitute the indoor mask mandate.

Philadelphia hit the panic button today as Health Commissioner Bettigole declared a Level Two Covid19 status.  “I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do this again,” Bettigole said.

What triggered the emergency order?  A first in the nation recall on masking.  Philadelphia hit a daily average of 144 people coming up with a positive test as of April 8th.  This represents a 60% increase over the past 10 days which trips Bettigole’s self imposed metric for panic and the donning of facial coverings which a very heavy weight of science shows have little to no effect on respiratory viral transmission.

Bettigole’s call is counter to current CDC data which declares the risk low in Philadelphia as well as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s guidance which currently does not recommend masking.

This week is a soft opening for the City mask mandate and health officials won’t start cracking down on businesses who violate the order until April 18th.

Below is the latest CDC data for testing in Philadelphia.

Here is the CDC’s data for hospital admissions for Philadelphia.