City posts directions on cloth mask construction, announces 9 new COVID-19 deaths

Posted 4/3/20

An illustration from the city's page on how to create a cloth mask. Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley announced the city had 330 new cases of presumed COVID-19 infections in the city and …

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City posts directions on cloth mask construction, announces 9 new COVID-19 deaths

Posted
An illustration from the city's page on how to create a cloth mask.

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley announced the city had 330 new cases of presumed COVID-19 infections in the city and that nine people had died since the city's April 2 press conference at 1 p.m.

Those figures send the total number of positive cases to 2,430 and deaths to 26. Farley noted that group living facilities continue to be at risk and that of the city's 26 people to die from COVID-19, nine were nursing home residents.

Farley said hospitals continue to have plenty of capacity to handle new hospitalizations. He said 356 people were hospitalized in the city and more than 600 were hospitalized in the southeast Pennsylvania region, which includes Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester counties. Hospitals had 47% of available capacity and emergency departments remained seeing about 50% of normal demand.

Farley said Philadelphia area hospitals were admitting some people from outside the region, but he said planning is underway to expand hospital capacity in anticipation of increasing demand.

Finally, Farley said he expected the Center for Disease Control to soon issue a recommendation that all people who leave the house should wear a cloth mask. The city has a post on its COVID-19 page detailing how those masks can be made by hand here.

Farley said staying indoors continues to be the best policy to fight the COVID-19 epidemic. Masks, he said, were not an invitation to leave the home more. S

peaking earlier in the briefing, Mayor Jim Kenney noted that many Philadelphia residents had reported large gatherings of people outdoors to play sports. Those he said, were clearly against the city's stay at home order. He urged residents to call 311 to report those gatherings.

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