.....as cases surge high....1st major city to reinstate.....


Philadelphia becomes first major US city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate as cases rise

.....Philadelphia will reinstate indoor mask mandates Monday, April 18, as its Covid-19 cases quickly rise, the city’s Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole announced Monday.

The city is the first major US metropolitan area to bring back masking requirements after a slew of cities and states dropped restrictions as cases began trending downward in January.

The city will move to its second level of Covid-19 restrictions, which requires Philadelphians to wear masks in all indoor public places, including schools, businesses, restaurants and government buildings.

“Starting today, I’m asking all businesses and institutions in Philadelphia to dig up those old masks-required signs and start hanging them in your windows,” Bettigole said in a news conference.

Monday’s case count is more than 50% higher than it was 10 days ago, Bettigole said, noting the number of people hospitalized is still low. The city is now averaging 142 cases per day.

“By wearing masks consistently, we can continue to go about our daily lives and continue to take part in the life of our city without contributing to increasing transmission of Covid-19,” Bettigole said.

Last week, city health officials announced they were considering a mask mandate and recommended people start wearing masks in indoor public spaces even though the city was at the “Level 1: All Clear” restriction level. In order to remain at Level 1, the city’s Covid-19 metrics must meet two or more requirements: new daily cases must stay below 100 average new daily cases, hospitalizations must be below 50 and cases must have “increased by less than 50% in the previous 10 days.”

The city has now surpassed Level 1 requirements, though Bettigole believes masking precautions could prevent cases from increasing to previous levels.

“I suspect that this wave will be smaller than the one we saw in January,” she said. “But if we wait to find out and to put our masks back on, we’ll have lost our chance to stop the wave.”

On March 2, the city moved to its lowest “All Clear” level, which dropped the indoor mask mandate. At the time, major cities and states across the US were dropping their mandates.

Many states see cases rise
Nationally, cases are trending upward in more than half of states, though case numbers are still relatively low. Averaging around 34,000 new cases per day, the daily case rate in the US remains one of the lowest since mid-July.

It’s expected that Covid-19 case numbers will rise and fall over the course of the pandemic, White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told CNN’s New Day Monday, and said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance about what actions to take is in the right place.

“In terms of what to do about it, we really want to be guided by the CDC on this,” Jha said. “The CDC policy is right on this and that’s what I’ve been following for months, and that’s what we should be doing.”

According to the CDC, the Covid-19 community level for Philadelphia County – where the city of Philadelphia is located – is low. In such communities, CDC urges people to stay up-to-date on Covid-19 vaccinations and get tested if they have Covid-19 symptoms, but it does not suggest wearing masks.

Jha also said the CDC will share a scientific framework this week for the federal transportation mask mandate set to expire April 18. The federal mandate requires masks on public transportation such as planes, trains, buses and hubs like airports and bus terminals.

On NBC’s Today Show Monday, Jha said extending the federal transportation mask mandate is “absolutely on the table,” adding the CDC will make a decision based on the scientific framework it is creating.


philly.......(higher).......stake......?!

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2022 06:00PM by NewtonMP2100.

Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

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pRICE cUBE
Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

Even if that's not what they believe, it looks like the pollsters have made it clear - the public no longer wants to be forced to wear a mask. So far, it looks like not many are dying from the current infections, but I don't want to be that ONE.

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hal

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pRICE cUBE
Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

Even if that's not what they believe, it looks like the pollsters have made it clear - the public no longer wants to be forced to wear a mask. So far, it looks like not many are dying from the current infections, but I don't want to be that ONE.

The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB

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hal

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pRICE cUBE
Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

Even if that's not what they believe, it looks like the pollsters have made it clear - the public no longer wants to be forced to wear a mask. So far, it looks like not many are dying from the current infections, but I don't want to be that ONE.

The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

The CDC and health experts expect a small bump is cases, hospitalizations and deaths but nothing like the Delta surge or Omicron BA1 surge. A bump up from record low cases and hospitals are not expecting any major changes to COVID protocols

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Mr645

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PeterB

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hal

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pRICE cUBE
Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

Even if that's not what they believe, it looks like the pollsters have made it clear - the public no longer wants to be forced to wear a mask. So far, it looks like not many are dying from the current infections, but I don't want to be that ONE.

The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

The CDC and health experts expect a small bump is cases, hospitalizations and deaths but nothing like the Delta surge or Omicron BA1 surge. A bump up from record low cases and hospitals are not expecting any major changes to COVID protocols

Could you provide a citation for where the CDC said they "expect" a small bump in cases? Thanks.

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e pluribus unum

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Ted King

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Mr645

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PeterB

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hal

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pRICE cUBE
Surprised this happened since most municipalities have moved to "just live with it".

Even if that's not what they believe, it looks like the pollsters have made it clear - the public no longer wants to be forced to wear a mask. So far, it looks like not many are dying from the current infections, but I don't want to be that ONE.

The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

The CDC and health experts expect a small bump is cases, hospitalizations and deaths but nothing like the Delta surge or Omicron BA1 surge. A bump up from record low cases and hospitals are not expecting any major changes to COVID protocols

Could you provide a citation for where the CDC said they "expect" a small bump in cases? Thanks.

The problem is that there are quite a few unknowns, which is why I don't think Mr645's statement is quite correct. We're already apparently seeing the development of new subvariants of BA.2, because so many are getting infected with it. [deadline.com]

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

.....the surges are huge in certain cities like NY.....but because the symptoms are 'light'.....no one seems to care [ if they were more severe, it would be more noted ] due to people being vaccinated....

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Edit: Oops, never mind. I missed the word "don't" in a response.

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e pluribus unum



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2022 10:56AM by Ted King.

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NewtonMP2100
.....the surges are huge in certain cities like NY.....but because the symptoms are 'light'.....no one seems to care [ if they were more severe, it would be more noted ] due to people being vaccinated....

The problems are that-- 1) still not everyone is vaccinated; 2) even if vaccinated, doesn't mean that any particular person could end up getting a serious case, or even long COVID; 3) the hospitalizations take away from people who really need the bed for other reasons, like life-protective procedures; 4) so long as we continue to let the virus spread and reproduce, we run the risk of generating new variants that will be more contagious, more pathogenic, less affected by the vaccines, or all of the above... it's like a ticking bomb that could go off at any time.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB
The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

Unfortunately, I am seeing highly educated, thoughtful people in my community give up and say. "Let it rip, I am vaccinated and so are most of my kids. Time to live with it" People being hospitalized and dying won't change them nor the people who never took the whole thing seriously to begin with. IMHO, most people on both sides of this issue don't believe they will be the unlucky sap that this virus brings down.

I am going to keep my guard up because this vaccine has been great but it was formulated against C19 classic. We don't know what variant will put us back at square one.

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Ways to improve web conference image and sound quality. [forums.macresource.com]

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pRICE cUBE

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PeterB
The public's view might change if we end up with a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, which could still happen from folks not getting their boosters and a new, more contagious/deadly variant surfacing.

Unfortunately, I am seeing highly educated, thoughtful people in my community give up and say. "Let it rip, I am vaccinated and so are most of my kids. Time to live with it" People being hospitalized and dying won't change them nor the people who never took the whole thing seriously to begin with. IMHO, most people on both sides of this issue don't believe they will be the unlucky sap that this virus brings down.

I am going to keep my guard up because this vaccine has been great but it was formulated against C19 classic. We don't know what variant will put us back at square one.

Yes, there's no question that folks' complacency, unwillingness to be "put out" in any way, and lack of consideration for others will all factor into what happens in the future. And yes, there's also the factor of that you always think it will happen to the other guy-- until it happens to you.

I think (hope) we can stay on top of the variants, but the virus seemingly mutates faster than we can produce new vaccines for it... even with the newer mRNA tech. Also, what I'd predicted many months ago has come to pass, and we've seen examples of recombination between strains in patients who are coinfected with two different strains.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Just returned from grocery shopping here in LA and it seemed like 75% or more were wearing masks, of course the cashier I happened to run through was the only exception among staff.