Philly won’t ease restrictions like rest of Pa. as cases and hospitalizations rise; Regal Cinemas to reopen theaters

An executive with Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Wells Fargo Center and Philadelphia Flyers, said Tuesday that existing public health and safety measures the company has implemented at the sports arena “have been a huge success.”

In response to Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley saying the city will not follow Gov. Tom Wolf is easing capacity restrictions from 15% to 25% for venues such as the Wells Fargo Center, Valerie Camillo, president of business operations for the arena and the hockey franchise, said in a statement:

“The health and safety measures we’ve put in place at Wells Fargo Center have been a huge success, and we’re going to continue working closely with public health experts and city and state officials to determine when we can increase our capacity.”

Farley cited an increase in COVID-19 case counts as the reason the city will remain more restrictive come April 4, the date specified by Wolf for when rules in place for the rest of the state will be loosened.

The 15% capacity limit equates to around 3,100 fans being allowed to attend Flyers and 76ers games.

— Sam Carchidi and Robert Moran

Six days of allowing people from some of the most under-vaccinated neighborhoods in the city to get vaccinated without appointments at the Pennsylvania Convention Center resulted in a more diverse swath of people receiving doses at a location that had overwhelmingly been used by the city’s white population.

Since allowing walk-ups, 18% of the people vaccinated at the FEMA-run clinic have been Black, city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said, up from about 13% in the first two weeks the clinic operated. White vaccine recipients at the Convention Center dropped from 58% to 37% in the past week, Farley said.

Hispanic recipients rose from less than 11% to 15%, and Asian vaccine recipients rose from about 17% to 20%.

The rates of people of color being vaccinated are even higher among those who were able to receive a vaccination without an appointment, Farley said, a system that also doesn’t require a person to register online.

Through the first two weeks of the FEMA-run clinic, all appointments were made through a digital registration portal. Public health experts have criticized digital scheduling systems as disadvantaging people who are less digitally savvy or are less likely to have internet access. Links that allowed people to register for appointments were also widely shared with thousands not currently eligible for vaccination. The result was a clinic that ended up serving a disproportionate number of white people.

The FEMA site is in its fourth week of an eight-week run at the Convention Center, and is anticipated to fully vaccinate more than 200,000 by its conclusion. The city is in discussions to extend FEMA’s presence at the site beyond eight weeks, but has not reached a resolution.

— Sean Collins Walsh

More than 11,000 first-dose vaccine appointments at the Pennsylvania Convention Center this week are being voided, city health officials said, due to people again improperly using the digital scheduling system.

The city is still reviewing appointments, but said it may be necessary to cancel as many as 30,000 appointments over the three weeks the FEMA-run site is providing second doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

The site began administering second doses this week, but people have been sharing registration links and a QR code given to people who got their first shot, allowing thousands to make appointments for first doses.

“If you haven’t gotten your first dose,” said James Garrow, a health department spokesperson, “please don’t show up because you’ll be turned away.”

Health department personnel first noticed the slew of first-dose appointments when there should be none on Monday, Garrow said. As first reported by WHYY, staff discovered a QR code designed to allow people who had received a first dose to schedule an appointment was being shared and used to make first dose appointments. Those using the code first had to strip it of personal information to allow it to be used by others.

The city in response is canceling all first dose appointments through the three weeks the Convention Center site is only doing second doses.

Starting April 11, the FEMA-run clinic will shift again to offering first doses for two more weeks, but will carry only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which does not require a second dose.

This is the second time sharing a digital registration system led to a massive number of improper appointments. When the FEMA site first opened at the beginning of March, unrestricted registration links were shared with thousands, allowing people not eligible to be vaccinated in Philadelphia to make appointments.

To schedule a second shot, the FEMA site offers people a card with a recommended day to return, but also allowed them to scan a QR code that permitted them to schedule their own time, and even change the day if necessary, Garrow said. The intention, he said, was to give people more flexibility.

“If you have a million people banging on a system they’re going to find a way around it,” Garrow said.

People eligible for vaccination who had a first-dose appointment canceled should pre-register with the city and they should be contacted to make another appointment.

» READ MORE: Thousands of improperly scheduled vaccine appointments at Philly FEMA site canceled

— Jason Laughlin

Coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations in Philadelphia are on the rise.

The city on Tuesday reported 533 newly confirmed cases, for a total of 120,490 since the pandemic began.

For the week ending March 20, the city saw 400 new cases per day, with 6.1% of tests coming back positive. The previous week, there were 287 new cases per day, and 5.4% of tests were positive.

There were 318 COVID-19 patients in Philadelphia hospitals on Tuesday, Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. On March 7, there were only 203.

The city also reported eight newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths, bringing the city’s death count to 2,330.

— Sean Collins Walsh

Philadelphia will not follow Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to significantly loosen coronavirus safety restrictions for the rest of Pennsylvania starting April 4 because case counts continue to rise in the city, Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday.

“I’m concerned that the rest of the state is opening up too much,” Farley said, noting that case counts are also rising in Pennsylvania. “I don’t think it makes sense for us to loosen up here. We can prevent some risk by not allowing those restrictions to open up in Philadelphia.”

The Wolf administration will significantly increase capacity for outdoor events and allow restaurants to increase seating from 50% to 75% of their capacity indoors, serve alcohol without food, resume bar service, and discontinue the mandatory 11 p.m. last call. Gyms, casinos, and other entertainment venues can also increase their capacities to 75%.

Additionally, indoor events may be held with 25% of maximum occupancy, up from 15%, outdoor events with 50% of a space’s capacity, up from 20%.

Farley said the city on April 4 will make some small changes to its restrictions, such as allowing food to be served at indoor business meetings and allowing outdoor catered events to be attended by up to 250 people.

But Philadelphia will not yet adopt the sweeping changes Wolf has green-lighted because case counts, testing positivity rates, and hospitalizations are on the rise.

“There’s a lot of reasons still to be optimistic over the next few months,” Farley said of the vaccine rollout. “Today, the epidemic is still growing, it’s still here, and it’s still deadly.”

— Sean Collins Walsh

Nearly half of parents reported that their teenagers have faced new or worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic, a new poll by researchers at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan Medical School found. The poll adds to a growing body of research that suggests that COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on mental health.

The poll, which surveyed 977 parents with children between the ages of 13 and 18 across the country, looked at mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior. It also analyzed how parents were helping teens handle those symptoms and whether they believed those strategies were working.

Three in four parents surveyed said that COVID-19 had negatively affected their teens’ abilities to socialize with their friends nearly every day. Parents of adolescent girls also reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than parents of adolescent boys — one in three girls experienced new or worsening anxiety, while one in four boys experienced the same.

In order to help their teens cope, half of survey respondents said that they have relaxed family rules so their kids can socialize with friends more, with 81% reporting that it has helped. Nearly three in 10 parents said that they’ve sought help for their adolescent from a mental health provider.

“Pandemic-related lifestyle changes have wreaked havoc on teens’ lives, with many experiencing disruptions to their normal routines,” said Gary L. Freed, a co-director of the poll and a Mott pediatrician, in a press release. “Our poll suggests that pandemic-era changes may have had a significant mental health impact for some teenagers. One of the most important things for parents to do is keep lines of communication open; ask their teen how they are doing and create the space for them to speak honestly so they can provide help when needed.”

— Bethany Ao

Even as the pace of vaccinations speeds up, COVID-19 cases are rising in 21 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Pennsylvania reported 3,261 new cases Tuesday. The commonwealth is now averaging 3,261 new infections a day, up 32% over the past two weeks, according to an Inquirer analysis.

New Jersey is averaging 3,352 new cases a day, up 55% from a recent low point on Feb. 25. The state reported 2,608 new cases Monday, and Gov. Phil Murphy said during a press briefing that New Jersey is “back to leading the nation in the spread of this virus.”

The statewide rate of transmission is 1.09, meaning each case is leading to at least one more infection. The spikes in new cases have so far been largely concentrated in the north and central part of the state, with numbers in South Jersey remaining stable.

— Rob Tornoe

More than 100,000 teachers and school staff are now fully vaccinated across Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania began vaccinating teachers using Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine. As of Tuesday morning, 102,161 educators across the commonwealth had been vaccinated, Wolf said.

“Vaccinating more than 100,000 teachers and staff in less than two weeks is a big step to help students return to the classroom and stay in school,” Wolf said in a statement. “It’s also another sign of hope that the light at the end of this long tunnel is getting brighter.”

The Pennsylvania National Guard is helping to administer the vaccine at 28 Intermediate Units — regional education entities — to pre-K to grade 12 educators and staff. This does not include teachers in Philadelphia, which is handling its own rollout of the vaccine.

There are an estimated 200,000 school staffers across the commonwealth, and the timing of the remainder of vaccinations will depend on Johnson & Johnson hitting deadlines for shipping more vaccines by the end of the month.

» READ MORE: ‘Absolutely game-changing’: Teachers in the Philly suburbs have begun getting coronavirus vaccines

— Rob Tornoe

From her second-floor apartment at Emlen Arms, Carolyn Dobey grew worried watching news reports and hearing from friends about hours-long wait times at coronavirus vaccination clinics.

“A lot of people, they’re on crutches, they’re in wheelchairs, they can’t get out,” said the 80-year-old resident of the senior apartment building in West Mount Airy. “Like me, I had a knee replacement. … I ain’t going in no line.”

So when she heard she could get the vaccine from inside her Philadelphia Housing Authority building — her home of 24 years — Dobey jumped at the chance. On Monday, after receiving her second Pfizer dose after just a 30-minute wait in her building’s community room-turned-vaccine clinic, Dobey’s eyes flashed from behind her white KN95 face mask.

Dobey was vaccinated through a partnership by PHA and Temple University’s College of Public Health, which over the last month, has administered shots to more than 650 low-income residents at 13 senior affordable housing sites. The housing authority is considering expanding the partnership’s efforts to other locations.

The outreach is one of several mobile coronavirus vaccine clinic efforts amping up across the city the past few weeks, with health-care groups and hospitals assembling teams to reach some of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents, particularly seniors, directly in their homes — something that experts say could change the game for equitable access to the vaccine.

» READ MORE: Mobile vaccine clinics ramp up efforts to reach Philly’s most vulnerable communities: ‘Let’s bring vaccine to them’

— Ellie Rushing and Oona Goodin-Smith

Regal Cinemas will reopen theaters across the United States after having been shut down for six months by the COVID-19 pandemic, parent company Cineworld announced Tuesday.

A limited number of locations will open April 2 in time for Godzilla vs. Kong, with capacity limited by local guidelines. More locations will open by April 16 for the premiere of Mortal Kombat. The company didn’t specify when individual locations would reopen.

“We have long-awaited this moment,” Mooky Greidinger, the chief executive of Cineworld, said in a statement. “With capacity restrictions expanding to 50 percent or more across most U.S. states, we will be able to operate profitably in our biggest markets.”

There are 22 Regal Cinemas in Pennsylvania, including two locations in Philadelphia — one in Manyunk, and one on Grant Avenue in Northeast Philly. Overall, the chain has 15 locations in the Philly region, though the Regal UA Riverview Plaza on Columbus Boulevard permanently closed in November.

In Philadelphia, movie theaters are limited to 15% capacity. Theaters can allow food and drink inside, as long as people are seated in groups of four or less.

Regal also owns four theaters in South Jersey and two locations in northern Delaware.

— Rob Tornoe

Officials in Philadelphia and Delaware will offer coronavirus updates on Tuesday. Here’s a schedule of how to watch and stream:

— Rob Tornoe

Temple University has partnered with Philadelphia to become an official COVID-19 vaccine provider, and will begin dispensing the vaccine “in limited quantities” the week of March 29, the school announced Monday.

The clinic will operate two days a week, alternating between eligible residents and Temple faculty, staff, and students who live in Philadelphia. All inoculations will require an appointment, and there will be no walk-up clinics, the school said.

“You should not rely solely on Temple for a COVID-19 vaccination. For the time being, Temple will receive a very limited supply of vaccines,” Mark Denys, the university’s senior director of health services, wrote in an email to students, faculty and staff. “We urge all members of the university community to also sign up with their local communities and health providers to obtain vaccination.”

Philadelphia is in phase 1b of vaccine distribution, which includes about 400,000 Philadelphians and is primarily made up of people 65 or older, frontline essential workers, and people with high-risk health complications. A full list of those eligible is available on the city’s website.

Eligibility recently expanded to include members of the clergy, people with intellectual disabilities, and anyone who takes immune-suppressing medications.

— Rob Tornoe

British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca may have only used partial data when it announced the results from a U.S. trial of its coronavirus vaccine, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Tuesday in a highly unusual rebuke.

The agency, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement that it was concerned AstraZeneca used outdated information from the large-scale trial when it reported the results Monday, “which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”

It urged the company, which developed its vaccine with Oxford University, to work with the U.S. Data Safety and Monitoring Board to review the data and release the updated information “as quickly as possible.” AstraZeneca had said Monday that the vaccine was shown to be 79 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 — and that it was 100 percent effective against severe illness.

On a forum for science reporters in Britain, Stephen Evans, a professor of at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said disagreements over trial results were not unknown, but never like this.

“It is usually done in private, so this is unprecedented in my opinion,” he wrote.

Confidence in the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot has plummeted among Europeans over concerns the vaccine may have caused rare but serious blood clots in a handful of patients in recent weeks, prompting several nations to suspend its use while the incidents are investigated. Europe’s medical regulator concluded last week that the vaccine is “safe and effective,” but it could not rule out a link to a small number blood clot cases.

» READ MORE: U.S. officials say AstraZeneca may have used outdated information in its vaccine trial

— Washington Post

On Tuesday, the FEMA site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center will begin exclusively administering second doses of the Pfizer vaccine for three weeks, then will switch to the Johnson & Johnson single-dose shot for two weeks, the federal agency announced Monday.

During the three weeks the FEMA site in Center City will administer second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, first doses will no longer be available there, FEMA said.

Vaccinations will be by appointment only for people who have already received their first dose and walk-ups will no longer be accepted, the agency said.

The actual date and other details for the switch to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be announced later.

— Robert Moran

With the need for COVID-19 vaccines continuing to outstrip the U.S. supply, pharmacists point to two ways to immediately increase it by an estimated 10%.

Vaccinators could give the extra dose that occasionally remains in a vial after the official number of shots has been administered. And they could combine partial doses — the remnants in two or three vials — to make a whole dose of a manufacturer’s immunization.

But both of those ploys are discouraged or outright forbidden by federal vaccine overseers.

“I just don’t get why they’ve been so hard-nosed,” said Michael Cohen, president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in Horsham. “We’re trying to vaccinate people as quickly as possible. That 10% increase in supply would go to people who could be vaccinated immediately.”

» READ MORE: Vaccinators say they could increase the supply of COVID-19 shots by 10% right now, but federal agencies are standing in the way

— Marie McCullough