New Jersey to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults in two weeks; Philly allowing more fans into Citizens Bank Park and Wells Fargo Center

Camden County officials said Monday that an increased delivery of vaccines this week will allow for thousands of new vaccination appointments.

The county’s vaccination site, which is operated in partnership with Cooper University Health Care and Jefferson Health-New Jersey, will expand its operation to 12 hours daily to accommodate the new appointments, officials said.

The new hours begin Tuesday and be in place through Saturday.

The county did not provide specifics beyond saying “thousands” of additional vaccination appointments would be available.

“This is an incredible opportunity to increase the rate of vaccinations in our community at the same time that spread of this disease appears to be picking up,” County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli, Jr. said in a statement.

”These vaccines are our best weapon in the fight against COVID-19. The faster that we are able to get these shots into the arms of our residents, the faster we can put this pandemic behind us. If you are eligible to be vaccinated, please do not delay and get your shot as soon as possible. All approved vaccines are safe and effective,” Cappelli said.

Appointments are available for eligible residents at camdencountyvaccine.com or by calling 856-549-0530 or 800-999-9045.

— Robert Moran

Philadelphia’s latest iteration of its pandemic rental assistance program, which for the first time includes funds for renters’ utility payments, is accepting applications from tenants and landlords.

People who have experienced financial hardship due to the pandemic can apply for a piece of the roughly $97 million in federal funds now available in this latest round of assistance at phlrentassist.org. Tenants and landlords can receive up to 18 months of rent and/or utility assistance, with rent payments capping out at $2,000 monthly and $2,000 each for water, electric, and gas bills.

The city has distributed more than $65 million to more than 14,000 households since last May, according to Mayor Jim Kenney. Tenants who have received assistance in prior phases of the program are eligible to apply again for months not already covered.

Tenants must meet income requirements and show that they are at risk of housing instability or homelessness without assistance. Landlords cannot begin eviction proceedings against tenants receiving funds for 90 days from the last month of assistance.

Tenants can call 311 with questions.

The city’s rental assistance program has raised more than $100,000 in donations and is asking individuals and companies to continue to contribute.

— Michaelle Bond

All Philadelphia schools scheduled to open at the end of the month for in-person learning have been cleared by the city’s teachers union as safe for occupancy, officials said Monday.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers signed off on 23 buildings, mostly middle schools. The district had previously announced all third through fifth graders were eligible to return to in-person instruction two days a week beginning April 26, as are sixth through eighth graders with complex special needs. Teachers for third through eighth graders — including sixth through eighth grade teachers whose students will remain remote — must all return to school buildings April 12.

Prekindergarten through second graders were eligible to return to face-to-face learning last month, though just a third of families opted to have their children come back to buildings. In all, more than 150 schools that house pre-kindergarten through second graders have reopened, including Spruance Elementary, the school whose reopening was delayed because of environmental concerns. Spruance has been cleared by the PFT and is now reopened.

There’s not yet a return date for most sixth through 12th graders; it’s not clear if they will come back to classrooms at all this school year.

The 23 schools cleared by the PFT are: AMY at James Martin, AMY Northwest, Baldi Middle School, Roberto Clemente Middle School, Conwell Middle School, Carver High School of Engineering and Science, Crossroads Accelerated Academy, Crossroads Academy at Hunting Park, Feltonville Arts and Sciences Middle School, Feltonville Intermediate School, GAMP, Harding Middle School, Hill-Freedman World Academy, Julia R. Masterman, MYA, Penn Treaty High School, Philadelphia Learning Academy North, Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Service Center, SLA at Beeber, Tilden Middle School, Wagner Middle School, Grover Washington Middle School, Woodrow Wilson Middle School.

— Kristen A. Graham

Philadelphia reported 1,551 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Monday, representing case totals for four days, since numbers were last reported Thursday.

The city also announced three coronavirus deaths. A total of 3,285 residents have now died of the virus.

Health officials said last week that the rate of new cases of the coronavirus was increasing in Philadelphia, with daily case counts doubling in the past month. They have urged residents to continue wearing masks and social distancing.

— Laura McCrystal

Vaccines will open to all New Jersey residents 16 and older on April 19, Gov. Phil Murphy announced, saying it was time to make an “aggressive push” to meet the state’s goal of vaccinating most adults by the summer.

“Give the trajectory we are on, we believe this is the right time to put our program into higher gear,” Murphy said.

The expansion will arrive a little less than two weeks before the May 1 deadline imposed by President Joe Biden. The state will also be in line with Pennsylvania, which will also open eligibility to all adults on April 19.

Murphy has set a goal of vaccinating 70% of the population, about 4.7 million people, by the summer. According to state data, about 1.8 million people have been fully vaccinated — almost 20% of the population. Another 3 million residents have received the first of two required doses.

The announcement followed the most recent expansion of eligibility for the vaccine, with those 55 and older qualifying for shots as of Monday. Murphy and health officials have said in recent weeks that they have received more vaccine doses from the government, and expect continued increases.

— Allison Steele

The data doesn’t look good. After weeks of decline, the average number of new coronavirus infections reported each day is higher than it’s been in a month. The number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 has been stubbornly stagnant since mid-March. And even as highly contagious virus variants spread, state leaders are relaxing safety precautions.

In the Midwest and Plains, Michigan, Nebraska, and Minnesota are among the states that have reported large increases. In the Northeast, states such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Vermont and Maine have witnessed a similar incline.

But this time around, the country’s leading epidemiologists disagree about what to call this latest phase of the pandemic. Is the United States on the cusp of a “fourth wave”? Or are we instead seeing the last gasps of a crisis in its 14th month?

Michael T. Osterholm, an adviser to President Biden’s coronavirus task force, said on NBC’s Meet the Press that the next two weeks will bring “the highest number of cases reported globally since the beginning of the pandemic.”

“In terms of the United States, we’re just at the beginning of this surge,” said Osterholm, who is also the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “We haven’t even really begun to see it yet.”

On CBS’s Face the Nation, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicted the current spikes would not amount to “a true fourth wave,” citing the number of Americans who have already been infected, plus the number of people who have been vaccinated.

“I think that there’s enough immunity in the population that you’re not going to see a true fourth wave of infection,” Gottlieb said. “What we’re seeing is pockets of infection around the country, particularly in younger people who haven’t been vaccinated and also in school-age children.”

— Washington Post

People who are fully vaccinated will no longer be asked to follow domestic travel restrictions in New Jersey, such as quarantining when arriving in the state, Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce at his regular coronavirus briefing this afternoon.

Fully vaccinated travelers who arrive in New Jersey from elsewhere in the country will no longer be required to take a test or self-quarantine. And no quarantine or test will be required of those who have recovered from COVID-19 within the past three months.

Vaccinated New Jerseyans who travel abroad will still be asked to get tested within days of their return.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires a negative test result or proof of recent recovery from passengers who arrive in the United States.

New Jerseyans who are unvaccinated are still asked to postpone travel if possible, to get tested before and after any trips, and to self-quarantine for seven days after returning from travel. Those who do not get tested are asked to stay home for 10 days.

» READ MORE: What to know about traveling for summer vacation this year

— Allison Steele

It should go without saying, but if you are unvaccinated and have symptoms of COVID-19, or have no symptoms but test positive, then you should not go into a small, crowded bar without a mask to celebrate its reopening.

Four infected young adults — three who felt sick and one who had tested positive the day before — threw caution into beer cups in rural Illinois in early February. That set off the kind of super-spreader event that public health officials are worried about, as they brace for the fallout of college spring breaks, Easter and Passover gatherings, and the reopening of indoor establishments.

The Illinois event, detailed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest weekly report, had all the now-familiar ingredients for far-flung transmission: about 100 unvaccinated people — predominantly young adult males — gathered in a poorly ventilated, 2,800-square-foot bar. They later admitted in interviews with local health department contact tracers that their mask use was “inconsistent.”

The result was 46 cases of COVID-19 — enough to make the county’s seven-day average of cases per 100,000 residents jump from 42 to 87.

» READ MORE: COVID-19 super-spreader event traced to risky behavior in a bar, CDC report finds

— Marie McCullough

The COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for pregnant women, Anthony Fauci announced during a White House briefing Monday.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at least 70,000 pregnant women have received one of the three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States, and so far the data shows a similar immune response to non-pregnant women. Fauci said immunity also appears to transfer well to the fetus.

The CDC is enrolling participants to analyze the data and better understand how a COVID-19 vaccination affects pregnant women. But Fauci said so far, there haven’t been any specific signals that show any danger from the vaccine for pregnant women.

“In other words, things look very good for the association between vaccination and protecting pregnant women from adverse outcomes for themselves and their fetus,” Fauci said.

The White House also released a short video on social media of Fauci discussing the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women.

— Rob Tornoe

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley has said the city’s failed vaccine partnership with Philly Fighting COVID, a collaboration that became a national embarrassment, was formed “in a hurry.”

But more than 200 emails obtained by The Inquirer suggest something different: They show the health department was closely planning with the group for months before the January launch of its first mass vaccination clinic. And they included red flags about the city’s partnership with a self-described group of “college kids.”

Among other things, they show Andrei Doroshin, Philly Fighting COVID’s CEO and a 22-year-old Drexel University graduate student with no experience in public health or medicine, mocking or questioning Ala Stanford, a physician who founded and runs the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, a nonprofit that offers testing and vaccination in underserved neighborhoods.

That behind-the-scenes relationship “gave him access to officials and discussions and opportunities he otherwise wouldn’t have,” Inspector General Alexander DeSantis said. “Philly Fighting COVID had an opportunity that other organizations did not have.”

» READ MORE: City and Philly Fighting COVID coordinated for months before scandal that was blamed on ‘acting in a hurry,’ emails show

— Ellie Silverman and Laura McCrystal

Philadelphia did not follow Pennsylvania in easing some COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday, but the city is allowing the Phillies to host more fans at Citizens Bank Park.

After allowing about 8,500 fans into the stands for the first two games of the Phillies’ season-opening series against the Atlanta Braves, the team received permission from the city to increase capacity from 20% to 25%, about 11,000 fans, according to a city spokesperson.

On Sunday, the Phillies announced an attendance of 10,773 fans for Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Braves, with social distancing pods scattered around all levels of the ballpark.

The Wells Fargo Center will also be allowed to increase capacity to 20%, up from 15%. That will how the Flyers and Sixers to host about 4,000 fans per game, according to a Wells Fargo Center spokesperson. The Flyers play at home against the Boston Bruins Tuesday night, while the Sixers’ next home game is April 14 against the Brooklyn Nets.

Philadelphia has not increased capacity limits for other venues or outdoor gatherings.

Pennsylvania increased capacity limits at stadiums outside of Philadelphia on Sunday. Outdoor arenas across the commonwealth are now permitted to allow 50% of capacity, while indoor arenas are able to hold 25% of their capacity.

» READ MORE: Phillies fans return home to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since 2019

— Rob Tornoe

The pace of vaccinations is increasing across the region as states move towards opening eligibility to all residents 16 and up.

Pennsylvania will open up vaccine eligibility to all adults on April 19, while Delaware will expand access to residents 16 and up on Tuesday. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has said the state will meet President Joe Biden’s goal of expanding access to all adults by May 1.

Here is the most recent vaccination data provided by each state’s health department as of Monday morning (Pennsylvania and Philadelphia handle their vaccine rollout separately, but their data has been combined below):

— Rob Tornoe

Philadelphia moved into the next phase of vaccine eligibility Monday. The change makes four groups of essential workers eligible for vaccination:

Other workers under the city’s phase 1C vaccination plan will become eligible to receive the vaccine later this month. That includes higher education, public-facing finance roles, transportation workers, construction workers, telecommunications and IT, media, the legal industry, and public health workers.

The city is still also working to vaccinate all residents age 65 and older, along with other groups of people already eligible. Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said last week that it is especially important to vaccinate people 65 and older as quickly as possible because coronavirus case rates are rising.

» READ MORE: Philly moving to next vaccine phase, expanding eligibility as cases rise

— Laura McCrystal

Pennsylvania and New Jersey are also opening up vaccine eligibility to more residents Monday.

In Pennsylvania, those now eligible to receive a vaccine include:

Pennsylvania residents in Phase 1C — which includes essential workers in several sectors — will be eligible April 12. Vaccines will open to everyone 16 and up on April 19.

In New Jersey, vaccine eligibility opens on Monday to a large group of residents, which includes:

Gov. Phil Murphy has said the state will meet President Joe Biden’s goal of opening eligibility to all residents by May 1.

— Allison Steele and Rob Tornoe

COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Pennsylvania as the commonwealth races to open up vaccine eligibility.

Pennsylvania added more than 9,000 new cases on Saturday and Sunday, and is now averaging 4,334 new case a day — the highest rate of new infections since early February.

The rise is being driven in part to the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, which was first detected in the United Kingdom and spreads more easily than the coronavirus that emerged in China 15 months ago.

“We know about 26% of all sequenced virus is now the B.1.1.7 variant,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said last week. “It is more transmissible than the wild type variant … and may be one of the reasons [cases are rising] if people are not doing the things — masking, distancing — to protect themselves. This variant is probably less forgiving, and more infections will occur.”

As of Monday morning, 2,202 Pennsylvania residents were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 1,554 patients two weeks ago.

In New Jersey, cases have also been rising, but the rate of growth is showing signs of slowing down as more and more residents receive vaccinations.

Gov. Phil Murphy reported 3,284 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, and the state is now averaging 3,945 new cases a day, down from the 4,000 plus infections a day it was adding last week.

— Rob Tornoe