“I have better news today. Our number of cases has dropped over the last three weeks, but the number of cases is still high and we need to be careful,” Farley said.
On Tuesday, the city reported a 41% drop in cases since “Safer Home” restrictions were enforced, which translates into some of the region’s lowest infection rates in a while. .
“So we see it as evidence that the restrictions work,” Farley added.
However, he warned that the combination of discouraged meetings on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve could cause case counts to skyrocket again.
“These two tips can run together and can feed each other,” he said.
To date, still in the first phase of deployment, more than 18,000 health workers in high-risk settings have received the COVID 19 vaccine in the city.
Farley said that over the next 2 weeks, the city is set to receive less than 10,000 doses of both the Pfizer and the Modern vaccine.
“The number of doses is small, so people who want to get vaccinated, including health care workers, will have to have patience to get the vaccine,” Farley said.
As the weeks go by, nonprofits like Philly Fighting COVID will work with the city to help vaccinate more Philadelphians, especially health care workers.
“The goal should be, by the time we have the vaccine in hand, it should be in someone’s arm,” said the doctor, Dr. José Torradas.
Torradas said one of the group’s goals is to help the city achieve herd immunity.
“So many business interests want to recoup the hundreds of millions of dollars at stake without counting the thousands of lives we lose every day for not being in herd immunity,” Torradas said.
Farley said the city’s health systems are working to get the vaccines out as quickly as possible.
“I don’t think any of them can stand the vaccine, I’m sure they shouldn’t. There are a lot of people who should be in line,” he said.
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