Philadelphia reinstates indoor mask mandate
Philadelphia will again require masks indoors at businesses and schools. The Health Department is still holding a briefing about the news.
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A shopper wearing a protective mask as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus selects fruit at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.
Matt Rourke | AP
With Covid-19 cases slowly rising, Philadelphia is bringing back its indoor mask mandate for public places, schools and day cares.
Philadelphia announced Monday that, on April 18, masks must be worn again indoors, unless vaccine status is checked.
"Simply put, that means that we're reintroducing the mask mandate in Philadelphia," said Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole at an afternoon press conference.
Philadelphia made the mask mandate move with daily case counts and hospitalizations ticking above its own self-imposed benchmarks in recent days.
There were an average of 142 new cases in Philadelphia in recent days, and 46 people are currently hospitalized with Covid-19.
The School District of Philadelphia had already planned on requiring masks as students return from spring break on April 18. This new mandate means all schools and day cares in the city must also follow suit.
The move means the city didn't even have two months without indoor masking requirements. The city had given the "all clear" and dropped its previous mask mandate on March 2.
