Philadelphia moves to reinstate indoor mask mandate, first major U.S. city to do so

State and local leaders across the U.S. have decided to stop using Pandemic Mitigation Measures in recent months due to the decline in cases. Cases are rising in more than half of states, and the daily average of cases is the lowest in a year.

It's too early to tell, but Philadelphia's move to tighten restrictions could be a sign that leaders across the country will impose mask mandates if cases continue to rise.

The data-driven guidelines local leaders have established correspond with the city's public health measures. The city's Covid metrics must meet two or more requirements to stay in Level 1: All Clear.

The city of Philadelphia will move to the second level, which requires indoor masking, after 10 days because of a 50 percent increase in new cases. She said 750 people died in Philadelphia during the Omicron winter wave, and that the city is trying to get ahead of another surge of hospitalizations and deaths.

We don't know if the BA.2 variant in Philadelphia will have the same impact on hospitalizations and deaths as the original Omicron variant.

It is not clear how long the mandate will be in place. Bettigole said lifting the restriction will depend on the data.