PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) – Philadelphia is ending its mandate for indoor masks, city health officials said Thursday night, reversing sharply just days after people in the city had to start wearing masks again amid a sharp rise in infections.
The health council voted Thursday to revoke the mandate, according to the Philadelphia Health Department, which issued a statement citing “reduced hospitalizations and equalization of cases.”
The term took effect on Monday. Philadelphia ended its previous term as an indoor mask on March 2nd.
# Breaking Phil. the mandate for the indoor mask is coming to an end. Per Phil. Health Department: “Due to the reduction in hospitalizations and the equalization of the number of cases, the City will move to strongly recommend masks in closed public places, instead of the mask mandate.” @ 6abc.
– Bob Brooks (@ BobBrooks6abc) April 22, 2022
The health department did not release data to support the abolition of masking, saying more information would be provided on Friday. But acting health commissioner Dr Cheryl Betigol told the health council in a public hearing Thursday night that hospitalizations had unexpectedly fallen by 25% in a few days.
“We are in a situation where we really did not expect to be in this soon, but this is good news,” she said, according to a transcript of the meeting. “So I’m really happy … to say that it doesn’t seem necessary to impose masks in Philadelphia anymore, and that we can actually move on to just a strong recommendation.
Philadelphia became the first major city in the United States to regain its mandate for an indoor mask, but faced a brutal blow as well as a legal effort to drop the mandate. Several masks were worn to the home game of the Philadelphia 76ers playoffs on Monday, although they were required by city rules.
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City officials said the mandate would be revoked on Friday morning.
When the city announced on April 11 that mandatory camouflage was returning, Betigol said it was necessary to prevent a potential new wave driven by an omicron subvariant. She said Philadelphia has crossed the threshold of growing cases in which city guidelines call on people to wear masks indoors.
“If we fail to act now, knowing that every previous wave of infections has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations and then a wave of deaths, it will be too late for many of our residents,” Betigol said at the time.
Cases and hospitalizations continued to rise until at least Monday, when the health department reported 82 patients at the hospital with COVID-19 – nearly 80 percent more than a week earlier – with confirmed cases rising 58 percent over the same period to 224 a day. These figures were still part of what the city endured during the omicron jump in the winter.
Betigol told the health council on Thursday night that hospitalizations have dropped to 65 since then.
The restaurant industry has rejected the city’s masked mandate again, saying workers will bear the brunt of customers’ anger over the new rules.
Several companies and residents have filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania State Court to overturn the renewed term. The Health Council’s vote to revoke the mandate came after board members met in private to discuss the lawsuit.
“We were very pleased to see that Philadelphia was making the right decision to revoke the mask mandate,” said plaintiff’s attorney Thomas W. King III, who was one of the participants in last year’s successful state-wide mask mandate challenge in schools.
Shortly before the news of the expiration of the term, the issue arose during a debate Thursday night between the three leading Democratic candidates seeking the party’s nomination for an open seat in the Pennsylvania Senate. It should be noted that two of them, Lieutenant Governor John Feterman and US Representative Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia, came out against the mandate.
“We have to go beyond COVID,” Feterman said, adding that “we have to live with this virus and I don’t believe we have to go back with a mask mandate or a closure.”
SEE ALSO: Trial aims to overturn renewed mandate for indoor mask in Philadelphia
U.S. spokesman Connor Lamb of the Pittsburgh suburb said he hated wearing masks, but said Philadelphia officials were “trying to do what’s best for everyone.”
Most states and cities reduced their disguise requirements in February and early March following new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which pay less attention to the number of cases and more to hospital capacity, and say most Americans can safely take off their masks.
Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry said it was appealing a judge’s order revoking the federal mandate to mask planes and trains and tourist centers. The CDC has asked the Department of Justice to appeal a decision made by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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