Philadelphia mask mandate: Officials will 'eventually' end mandate, but say case counts still too high
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia city health officials say they aren't ready to drop the mask mandate yet, but said "eventually" the mask mandate will end.
Dr. Cheryl Bettigole explained that while it's great that more people are doing home tests, counting cases isn't the best metric to determine how we're doing in terms of the pandemic.
"We still have more than 500 cases per day, we are on track to see 300 deaths in January. We are not at a place where we would drop the mask mandate," Dr. Bettigole stated.
Dr. Bettigole also added that she and her team have been exploring what the best circumstances would be to consider dropping the mask mandate.
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Officials say they aren't sure what qualifications they are looking for in order to drop the mask mandate.
"We're probably several months away from a place where we will have the kind of safety to drop all of the current restrictions," Dr. Bettigole explained.
The latest city-wide mask mandate went into effect in August 2021 amid a spike in cases related to the Delta variant.
Everything you need to know about the latest city-wide mask mandate is on the FOX 29 website.
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