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Despite a small increase in COVID-19 infections, Philadelphia does not yet need to reinstate its indoor mask mandate for everyone, the city’s top doctor said on Friday.
Acting Health Commissioner Dr Cheryl Bettigole told NBC10 the city has seen a few cases of the more infectious delta variant, but conditions are not as bad as in other parts of the country, including Los Angeles County, which on Thursday announced it was reinstating indoor hiding rules for everyone.
“We don’t want to do that, and we’re really not at this stage,” Bettigole said.
She noted that Philadelphia currently averages about 38 new infections per day, significantly lower than the average last fall, but still up from the 23-24 new cases the city had on average in recent weeks. .
At present, Bettigole said, there has also been no increase in coronavirus-related hospitalizations, but that could change in the coming weeks.
However, she stressed that the situation in Philadelphia is “very, very different” from that in LA County, where the rise in infections has been more pronounced.
The new cases in Philadelphia are mostly seen in adults between the ages of 20 and 34 who are either not vaccinated at all or who have skipped their second dose, Bettigole said.
“As people have said across the country, this is now largely an unvaccinated pandemic. That doesn’t mean we won’t see groundbreaking cases, but they will likely be very mild, ”she said.
Those who are not vaccinated should continue to use masks indoors and in crowded places, and they should seek to get vaccinated as soon as possible, Bettigole stressed. She added that people who skipped their second dose – around 8% of the city’s vaccinated population – do not have to receive the second dose in the same place where they received their first injection.
“If you are not fully vaccinated you are not safe and this variant is very contagious. So basically breathe or mask yourself, but do something to protect yourself, ”Bettigole said.
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