Philadelphia brought back an indoor mask mandate for schools and indoor public places on Monday after an elevated number of new cases was reported.
WHYY reported that the mask mandate was triggered when daily new cases rise above 100 and increase more than 50% over the previous 10 days.
Delaware has been seeing an elevated number of cases since late March and as of Sunday night had recorded 115.6 new cases a day on a seven-day average.
Delaware health officials have never announced metrics that would lead to a mask mandate, although it appears a key indicator for the First State is hospitalizations.
Delaware Gov. John Carney imposed a temporary indoor mask mandate after hospitals struggled to keep up the surge that at one point saw more than 750 getting Covid-19 treatment. That number was 29 as of Sunday.
Both Delaware and Philadelphia have not seen a sharp rise in hospital stays, despite the increase in new cases.
Philadelphia’s mask decision became national news, since it is the first large city to bring back the mask mandate after the surge abated from the omicron variant.
It’s bad news for the city’s restaurant industry, since some diners will go outside the city, rather than wear a mask
Click here for the story from WHYY
