City cancels all large public events until March, gyms to open on July 20

Posted 7/17/20

by Kate Dolan

This week, the city announced a moratorium on public events of 50

people or more and the reopening of gyms as Philadelphia’s daily COVID-19 case

counts remain …

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City cancels all large public events until March, gyms to open on July 20

Posted

by Kate Dolan

This week, the city announced a moratorium on public events of 50 people or more and the reopening of gyms as Philadelphia’s daily COVID-19 case counts remain stable.

At Tuesday, July 14’s COVID-19 update press conference, Mayor Jim Kenney announced the event moratorium, which will be in effect through February 28, 2021, acknowledging the variety of events typically hosted in Philadelphia.

“Due to the ongoing public health crisis, the event landscape and our city is going to look very different for the foreseeable future,” Kenney said.

“The city’s office of special events will not accept, review, process or approve applications, issue permits or enter into agreements for special events or public gatherings of 50 people or more on public property through the end of Feb,” said the mayor.

The moratorium applies to festivals, parades, concerts, carnivals, fairs and flea markets. “In additions, permit applications for residential block permits will not be accepted until further notice,” Kenney said.

Protests, demonstrations and “first amendment protected activities” are not included in the moratorium. Outdoor gatherings not publicly advertised such as family picnics, outdoor recreational activities of less than 25 people or events that occur on private property such as performance venues and stadiums are also not included.

Kenney said those event producers whose events can go on must follow guidance from the Department of Public Health and the state of Pennsylvania, such as in the case of the Philadelphia Eagles, who will play games at a spectator-less Lincoln Field.

At Thursday’s conference, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said that gyms will reopen on Monday, July 20 and must follow strict safety precautions, which include wearing a mask at all times, social distancing and exercise classes fewer than 10 people.

“The Department of Public health has not required permits or inspected gyms in the past, but we are going to be enforcing strictly, so we will be doing inspections at this point,” Farley said. He explained that inspections will be unannounced and unscheduled to ensure that gyms are in compliance with safety precautions. Dr. Farley cautioned that closures will happen if guidelines are not being followed.

The move came as Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe announced steps on Wednesday to tighten social distancing measures, including closing bars, limiting indoor dining to less 25% of total capacity and restricting indoor events to fewer than 25 people. Wolfe’s order, however, allows gyms and fitness centers to remain open. While Philadelphia has declined to allow indoor dining in any capacity, Farley acknowledged that the consistency of restrictions at the state and city level is good and it makes it easier for people to comply.

“With these changes, this brings the rest of Pennsylvania much closer to the policies that we’ve had over the past few weeks already in Philadelphia, so I strongly support those actions, I think it’s the right thing for the governor to do,” Farley said.

As the coronavirus surges in states including Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia, Philadelphia’s daily case counts remain stable, averaging 110 cases per day and a 5 to 6% positive test rate. The total number of cases as of the afternoon of July 16 was 28,024 confirmed cases and 1,664 deaths.

Dr. Farley said that he is concerned about the delay in testing and its impact on data, explaining that positive test results are taking upwards of seven days to come back from two out-of-state laboratories, Labcorp and Quest, which are conducting about a quarter of tests done on Philadelphia residents.

“The reason is that those labs have become overloaded with the very large demand from other parts of the country where they’ve seen surges in the epidemic,” Farley said.

The city is working to have tests collected in Philadelphia redirected to other labs but at this time, he asked people to isolate until they get their results. Testing site information is available at phila.gov/testing.

“We’ve had problems with this epidemic in clusters in congregate settings, where people who live together,” said Dr. Farley, offering an update while adding, “most of those clusters have been resolved.”

Nursing homes are averaging about 1 new infection per day in all 46 nursing homes across the entire city. Two thirds of those facilities have had no cases in the past four weeks and an additional 15% have reported no cases in the last two weeks.

“Nursing homes right now are looking very quiet,” Farley said.

The city’s jail went weeks without symptomatic cases but last week, one inmate tested positive leading to the screening of 65 inmates. Of those tested, 23 asymptomatic inmates tested positive. Those inmates have been isolated, and the outbreak is being contained.

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