Philadelphia sees new cases of COVID-19 decrease, according to Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) – Philadelphia health officials shared some positive news during their Thursday morning update of COVID-19.

According to Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole, the city is starting to see another drop in new COVID-19 cases.

Bettigole said security measures, such as the use of masks and the vaccination test, may be one of the reasons we lower infection rates.

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“There’s some evidence that we’ve come down from a peak,” he said. “There are 288 (new cases) down from 307 compared to last week and the percentage of tests that return positive is also down. On August 23, 7% of tests returned positive and yesterday only 5% returned positive “.

In terms of vaccinations, 67% of adults in Philadelphia are fully vaccinated and nearly 82% of adults have received at least one dose of vaccine.

SEE ALSO: Nearly 252,000 cases of pediatric COVID-19 reported last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics

Bettigole said the people who become infected are overwhelmingly the unvaccinated population.

“Our highest rates are in young adults aged 20 to 34 and in black adults, young black adults. They are the lowest vaccinated groups and we target these age groups,” he said.

The state of Pennsylvania announced a new grant partnership with United Way, which offers faith-based groups and nonprofits that organize vaccination actions from $ 400 to $ 40,000, depending on the number of people vaccinated.

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