Covid-19 cases have risen more than 50% in 10 days, the threshold at which city’s guidelines call for masking indoors
Highlights
- Philadelphia is first major US city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate after sharp increase in coronavirus infections.
- Health inspectors will begin enforcing the mask mandate at city businesses on 18 April.
- Health officials believe the recent wave is being driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, which has spread rapidly throughout Europe and Asia.
- In New York City, the mayor, Eric Adams, has paused his push to unwind many of the city’s virus rules as cases have risen there, too, opting for now to keep a mask mandate for two to four-year-olds in city schools and preschools.