Philadelphia flip flops on its indoor mask mandate

2022-05-15 00:17:47 By : Mr. Billy Wang

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Philadelphia has ended its indoor mask mandate just days after reinstating it.

The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate after “decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.”

The mask mandate had gone into effect Monday. The city had ended its previous mask mandate on March 2.

The reversal came after an official from the Board of Health told the agency that COVID-19 hospitalizations had gone down by 25% in a matter of days in the city.

“We’re in a situation that we really had not anticipated being in this soon, but it is good news,” said Cheryl Bettigole, the city’s acting health commissioner, according to a transcript of the meeting. “So I’m really very happy … to say it appears that we no longer need to mandate masks in Philadelphia and that we can actually move to simply a strong recommendation.”