“I have better news today. Our case count has been dropping in the past three weeks, but our case count is still high and we need to be careful,” said Farley.
On Tuesday, the city reported a 41% reduction in cases since the implementation of its “Safer At Home” restrictions, which translates to some of the region’s lowest infection rates in some time.
“So we see this as proof that the restrictions are working,” added Farley.
He cautioned, however, that the combination of reckless Christmas and New Year meetings could cause the case count to skyrocket again.
“These two ends can run together and feed on each other,” he said.
To date, still in the first phase of implementation, more than 18,000 health professionals in high-risk environments have received the vaccine COVID 19 in the city.
Farley said that in the next 2 weeks, the city is destined to receive less than 10,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“The number of doses is small, so people who want to be vaccinated, including healthcare professionals, will have to be patient to receive the vaccine,” said Farley.
As the weeks go on, nonprofits like Philly Fighting COVID will work with the city to help vaccinate more people in Philadelphia, especially healthcare professionals.
“The goal should be, the minute we have the vaccine in hand, it should be in someone’s arm,” said the chief physician, Dr. Jose Torradas.
Toasts said one of the group’s goals is to help the city achieve collective immunity.
“So many commercial interests want to recover those hundreds of millions of dollars at stake without counting the thousands of lives that we lose every day because we are not in herd immunity,” said Torradas.
Farley said the city’s health systems are working to distribute vaccines as quickly as possible.
“I don’t think any of them are holding the vaccine, they certainly shouldn’t be. There are a lot of people who should be in line,” he said.
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