The City of Philadelphia lifted its COVID-19 Safer-at-Home restrictions, including density limits, maximum capacity limits and social distancing guidelines, today, one week earlier than originally planned, according to a press release from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health on May 28.
Philadelphians will still be required to wear masks indoors and the city will continue to enforce its 11 p.m. curfew for dining at restaurants. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health may lift these guidelines on June 11, according to the release.
The city chose to lift the restrictions today, instead of on June 11 as planned, because Philadelphia has recorded its lowest positive COVID-19 case counts and positivity rates since September 2020, which had the lowest case counts and positivity rates since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the release.
As of May 26, Philadelphia has reported an average of 126 new COVID-19 cases per day and 2.6 percent daily testing positivity rate over the past two weeks, according to city data.
The Department of Health believes the low rates should continue because similar numbers are being recorded both nationally and regionally, according to the release.
Pennsylvania, which abides by different COVID-19 restrictions than Philadelphia, lifted many of its COVID-19 restrictions on May 31, including allowing businesses to operate at full capacity, The Temple News reported. Pennsylvania will also remove its indoor and outdoor crowd size restrictions on June 2.
Pennsylvania will lift its mask mandate on June 28 or when 70 percent of the adult population in the state is fully vaccinated, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
More than 4.6 million Pennsylvanians have been fully vaccinated, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard. In Philadelphia, more than 904,000 residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while more than 700,00 are fully vaccinated, The Temple News reported.
On May 7, Philadelphia expanded indoor dining capacity from 50 percent to 75 percent and no longer required people at tables to be from the same household, The Temple News reported.
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