U.S. death toll surpasses 500,000; N.J. eases restrictions on stadiums, venues; Philly teachers start getting vaccines
“Everybody’s got to do the stuff that we’re all used to these days: face coverings [and] social distancing,” Gov. Murphy said.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden participate in a moment of silence to mark lives lost.
The Biden administration announced Monday it will tweak its Paycheck Protection Program rules to direct more funding toward the smallest of small businesses.
Wondering where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Philly area? Use our lookup tool.
The Biden administration announced Monday it will tweak its Paycheck Protection Program rules to direct more funding toward the smallest of small businesses.
Wondering where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Philly area? Use our lookup tool.
U.S. death toll from COVID-19 tops 500,000
On Monday afternoon, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States surpassed 500,000, Johns Hopkins University reported.
That is more than double the nearly 247,000 fatalities reported in Brazil, which has the second worst total for deaths in the world, according to the university’s COVID-19 tracking website.
So far, the global death toll from the pandemic is 2.47 million, the website shows.
— Robert Moran
N.J. churches, other houses of worship can increase capacity, Murphy says
Houses of worship in New Jersey can now go from operating at 35% to 50% capacity, Gov. Phil Murphy said, provided that attendees wear masks and adhere to social distancing. The announcement followed an easing of crowd restrictions at sports arenas and entertainment venues.
Shipments of coronavirus vaccine that were delayed last week due to weather started arriving over the weekend and more were expected to arrive this week, Murphy said.
The state has administered 1.6 million vaccines, and more than 509,000 people are now fully vaccinated with both shots, officials said. And the state is making progress on vaccinating its most vulnerable members, health commissioner Judith Persichilli said: 33% of eligible adults over 80 have had at least one shot, as well as 33% of those between 65 and 79.
The state added 2,165 new cases and 17 deaths. Hospitalizations continue dropping, officials said.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, who attended Murphy’s regular coronavirus briefing to discuss pending coronavirus relief funding, said more federal support was coming.
“What we’re seeing now with this new Biden administration is an effort to coordinate crushing the virus nationally, to coordinate help for the states through this rescue plan, and to make a difference so that you guys on the state level are not on your own the way you have been,” he said.
— Allison Steele
Vaccination clinic scheduled in Southwest Philadelphia
A coronavirus vaccination clinic will be held at the Francis J. Myers Recreation Center in Kingsessing on Saturday for West and Southwest Philadelphians. The clinic will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 by appointment for people in the 1A and 1B categories who live in the following zip codes: 19104, 19131, 19139, 19142, 19143, 19151, 19153. To attend this clinic, you must also be available to return March 27 for the second dose of the vaccine.
To register and make an appointment, text READY to 267-264-7464. You can also call this number and follow the prompts.
» READ MORE: For 4,000 people waiting hours on a frigid North Philly sidewalk, coronavirus vaccine desperation turned to hope
— Ellie Rushing
As the U.S. nears 500,000 deaths, the burden has been felt by communities of color
The United States will likely reach a grim milestone of the COVID-19 pandemic soon: recording 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
The burden of that death toll has been disproportionately borne by communities of color, particularly Black, Latino, and Native Americans — something researchers who study health disparities say is crucial to acknowledge as the country struggles to move forward with vaccine distribution.
In Philadelphia, Black and Latino residents are hospitalized for COVID-19 at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Among Philadelphians 75 and older, the rate of hospitalization among non-white residents is much higher than that of white residents.
Black Philadelphians have died of the virus at a higher rate that white residents, and while the virus is risky for all adults over 75, it’s particularly deadly for non-white Philadelphians, according to statistics from the city.
It’s important to grieve the immense death toll, said Sharrelle Barber, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University who studies how structural racism affects health. “These are statistics, but they’re people, they’re souls — they’re moms and dads and aunties and uncles and grandmoms and even children. Because of our shared humanity, it’s important not to overlook that.”
But the next step, she said, is to work to dismantle the social inequities that have contributed to worse outcomes for people of color.
She said the federal government, as well as cities like Philadelphia, must address issues like racial residential segregation, which has long been shown to impact people’s health, as well as bias and discrimination in the healthcare system.
”We have to do some truth-telling about how we got here. Philly has to ask itself: how did we get to where we are as a city, to see such devastating inequities?” she said. “I would hope we would see these deaths, the disproportionate impact, as an opportunity to to that critical self-reflection. That’s going to require everyone, and action at the local, state, and national level.”
It’s also important to acknowledge how such inequities benefit other groups, she said.
”There was a privilege, at the very beginning of the pandemic, of who could stay home, and who was forced into jobs deemed essential, and doing so in conditions that were not safe. Those were disproportionately Black and brown folks in our communities. Their sacrifice, literally, benefitted people who are privileged to work from home. And this saps the strength of the whole society — if one community is not safe, none of us are safe.”
— Aubrey Whelan
‘It was like Christmas morning’: Philly teachers begin receiving vaccinations
Philadelphia teachers and other employees who work directly with children began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations through the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Monday.
The first doses were available for those already working in buildings and teachers who work with prekindergarten through second grade children, officials said, and will be given at clinics set up at CHOP’s main campus and six school sites around the city. The inoculations are available for all Philadelphia School District, city charter, parochial, and independent school teachers.
Stephanie Andrewlevich, the principal of Mitchell Elementary in Southwest Philadelphia, received her first shot at CHOP Monday morning in a process that ran like clockwork and was, she said, surprisingly emotional.
“People were in tears; it was so joyful,” said Andrewlevich, who has worked from the school building at 55th and Kingsessing for months. “They said, ‘We’ve been waiting for this moment for a year, to get you vaccinated and back in front of kids.’ It was like Christmas morning.”
It’s not yet clear how many doses the city has available for teachers or how long it will take to get all educators vaccinated.
Philadelphia School District students have been out of school buildings since March; Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. wants to bring back prekindergarten through second graders March 1, but it’s currently battling the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers on building conditions. Teacher and student return, however, is not conditional on vaccination.
» READ MORE: CDC gives new road map for schools without requiring schools to reopen
— Kristen A. Graham
174,000 in Philly have received at least one vaccine shot
Philadelphia announced 449 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Monday, representing lab results reported since Friday.
The city also announced one additional death due to COVID-19. A total of 3,057 residents have died of the virus, 37% of whom lived in long-term care facilities.
A total of 174,092 first doses of coronavirus vaccines had been given in Philadelphia as of Monday morning, according to the city’s data, along with more than 88,000 second doses.
As of Monday, there were 287 patients with the coronavirus in Philadelphia hospitals, with 46 of them on ventilators.
— Laura McCrystal
City Council committee advances $50 million for pandemic response
A Philadelphia City Council committee advanced a $50 million budget transfer ordinance Monday to pay for the ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Honestly, in this response our needs have been tremendous,” Budget Director Marisa Waxman told Council’s appropriations committee.
The transfer ordinance will now advance to the full Council for approval. It would add $50 million into the managing director’s office budget, which Waxman said would cover expenses such as personal protective equipment, quarantine and isolation centers, and food access centers.
The committee approved the ordinance with only Councilmember Allan Domb voting against it; he said Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration had not provided specifics about how exactly the funding would be used — especially for vaccinations, over which he has criticized the mayor.
“I want to see the plan before I vote,” he said.
Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez, who chairs the appropriations committee, said she did not want to hold up much-needed funding for which firm plans were already in place, but would work to get more questions answered before a final vote on the funding.
Waxman said the city has saved money this fiscal year in some areas, such as overtime related to special events. But the city’s budget margins remain razor thin, and officials said last week that they are facing a $450 million budget hole for the fiscal year that begins in July.
City officials are optimistic that a federal relief package will help. But Waxman said the city is still preparing for the possibility that federal aid will be minimal.
» READ MORE: Philly is facing a $450 million budget gap and the pain won’t stop there
— Laura McCrystal
Wolf on Pa. vaccine distribution: ‘We need to do better’
Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday that Pennsylvania is doing “an okay job” at inoculating residents but must do better, especially when it comes to vaccinating people of color.
The governor said the state has used about 77% of allocated doses thus far, below the U.S. average of 84%. At least 13% of Pennsylvanias have received one dose — the same as the nationwide average — while 4.9% have gotten two shots, below the U.S. average of 5.7%.
“Pennsylvania needs to do a better job,” Wolf said. “We are working hard to figure out how to do that, to make sure that everybody who wants a vaccine can get one and the folks who might be reluctant to get one, we do something to address that reluctance.”
Wolf said the major constraint is supply. For example, he said the state needs about 9 million vaccines for those who are in the 1A qualification category, but has received just 3 million.
“We still have a lot of people, even people who are in front of the line, who we just don’t have the vaccines for,” Wolf said. “So we need to do a better job, no question about it, and we especially need to do a better job with communities of color. But we all — this nation — needs to do a better job of getting vaccines, get that supply out.”
— Christian Hetrick
Wolf calls for tax on natural gas to support COVID-19 economic recovery
Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday called for a tax on natural gas extraction to spend $3 billion on workforce development and other programs to support an economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession.
Wolf and administration officials said their “Back to Work PA” plan would pay for programs that re-skill jobless workers, close the digital divide, attract manufacturing firms to reduce supply chain disruptions, and help communities expand their tax bases to bring in more revenues.
“Our businesses need a comprehensive, forward-thinking plan to bolster our economy and support our workforce,” Wolf said during a virtual press conference. “Getting Pennsylvania back on track after the pandemic means getting Pennsylvanians back to work quickly.”
The governor proposed using a severance tax on gas produced in the state to pay for initiative. He said the new tax would bring in about $300 million per year, which would allow the state to pay debt service on a $3 billion bond.
Wolf has unsuccessfully proposed the severance tax in previous budgets, as lawmakers have blocked past efforts.
Wolf’s plan comes as Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remains above pre-pandemic levels. The jobless rate fell for the eighth-straight month to 6.7% in December. That’s way down from a peak of 16.1% last spring when state and city officials shut down much of the economy. But the December jobless rate was still 2.1 percentage points above the same month in 2019.
Meanwhile, businesses continue to lay off workers in high numbers. More than a quarter of the state’s small businesses have gone dark, either temporarily or permanently, since January 2020, according to Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based research group.
— Christian Hetrick
N.J. loosens COVID-19 restrictions on stadiums, venues
New Jersey will allow a limited number of people back into stadiums and arenas across the state, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday morning.
Speaking on WFAN in New York City, Murphy said venues with a capacity of 5,000 will be permitted to allow in 10% of their capacity, beginning on March 1. Outdoor venues will be permitted to have 15% of their capacity.
The move will allow a small number of fans to watch Seton Hall and New Jersey Devils games at the Prudential Center in Newark, and Murphy said he’d be “shocked” if those numbers weren’t increased dramatically by the time the NFL and college football seasons begin in the fall.
Murphy also announced that up to two parents or guardians of college athletes will be permitted to watch sports events in-person, effective immediately. Previously, only high school athletes were allowed to have family members attend games.
“Everybody’s got to do the stuff that we’re all used to these days: face coverings [and] social distancing,” Murphy said.
In Philadelphia, the Sixers, Flyers, and Wells Fargo Center officials recently sent the city a proposal to have 5,000 fans in attendance for games beginning in March.
— Rob Tornoe
COVID-19 led to a drop in heart surgery, with grim consequences
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, heart surgeons warned that fewer people were coming in for bypass operations, valve replacements, and other cardiac procedures, in some cases dying as a result.
In a new nationwide analysis, researchers determined that the consequences may have been even worse than many realized — particularly in hard-hit hot spots in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
During April, the number of heart surgeries plunged by 71% in those three states and by 53% in the country as a whole, when compared with monthly averages in 2019.
And those who did undergo heart surgery were less likely to survive it, according to the analysis, drawn from comprehensive data collected by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
» READ MORE: COVID-19 led to a drop in heart surgery, with grim consequences
— Tom Avril
Vaccine numbers about to take off in the U.S.
Since their approval in December, more than 75 million doses of the two-shot-regimen Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been distributed, of which 63 million have been injected, reaching 13% of Americans. Nearly 45 million of those doses have been administered since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The pace of deliveries of those vaccines is about to take off. About 145 million doses are set for delivery in the next 5½ weeks, with an additional 200 million expected by the end of May and a further 200 million by the end of July.
That’s before the anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use of a third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson. The single-dose J&J vaccine is expected to help speed the path to immunity and requires half the vaccination resources of the two-shot regimens. But there is no massive stockpile of J&J doses ready to roll out on Day One.
The daily inoculation average climbed to 1.7 million shots per day last week, but as many as double that number of doses are soon expected to be available on average each day. The focus of Biden’s team is now quickly shifting to ensuring those doses can get used.
— Associated Press
New Jersey, White House to hold COVID-19 briefings
Officials in New Jersey and at the White House will offer coronavirus updates on Monday. Here’s a schedule of how to watch and stream:
White House, 3 p.m.: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, chief medical adviser to the president Anthony Fauci, and other public health officials, live streamed on the White House’s YouTube account.
— Rob Tornoe
Biden tweaking PPP rules to benefit smallest companies
President Joe Biden is targeting federal pandemic assistance to the nation’s smallest businesses and taking steps to further equity in what is known as the Paycheck Protection Program.
The administration is establishing a two-week window, starting on Wednesday, in which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees — the overwhelming majority of small businesses — can apply for the forgivable loans. Biden’s team is also carving out $1 billion to direct toward sole proprietors, such as home contractors and beauticians, the majority of which are owned by women and people of color.
Other efforts will remove a prohibition on lending to a company with at least 20% ownership by a person arrested or convicted for a nonfraud felony in the prior year, as well as allowing those behind on their federal student loans to seek relief through the program. The administration is also clarifying that noncitizen legal residents can apply to the program.
The Biden effort is aimed at correcting disparities in how the program was administered by the Trump administration.
» READ MORE: Biden is tweaking the PPP rules to reach the smallest companies
— Associated Press
As COVID-19 deaths drop in Pa., country nears grim milestone
Nearly 500,000 Americans have been killed by COVID-19, a once-unthinkable milestone surpassing the number of U.S. battlefield deaths in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.
“It’s nothing like we have ever been through in the last 102 years, since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
More than 498,000 Americans have died after contracting COVID-19 as of Monday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University, the highest death toll of any country by far. The next highest is in Brazil, which has reported more thana 246,000 deaths.
In Philadelphia, more than 3,056 people have died of the virus as of Friday — nearly one in every 500 residents. Over 23,000 Pennsylvanians have lost their lives to COVID-19, and in New Jersey, the pandemic has claimed more than 20,000 lives.
While the U.S. death toll is grim — equal to nearly the entire estimated population of Camden County — it comes as the average number of daily deaths is on the decline from pandemic highs reached in mid-January.
The United States is reporting an average of 1,850 deaths a day over the past seven days, a 40% drop over the past month. In Pennsylvania, the number of COVID-19 deaths per day has dropped 61% over the past month, down to 72 deaths per day.
» READ MORE: U.S. coronavirus death toll approaches 500,000; Biden to honor the dead
— Rob Tornoe
Tracking vaccinations in and around Philadelphia
— John Duchneskie
Temple had a low vaccine rate, so it turned to the phones
Temple University Hospital System’s offer of COVID-19 shots to 10,000 older and medically at-risk patients prompted a low response rate — just 15% — from the people who should be most concerned about getting the virus.
But after those initial invitations to register through TempleHealth, its online patient portal, the hospital system followed up with phone calls. The acceptance rate jumped to about 80%.
“We knew this was going to be a lot of manual phone calls in our population,” said Tony Reed, chief medical officer at Temple University Health System. “We’re afraid that the people who need it aren’t going to get it if we don’t make it a personal touch.”
Hospitals, which began inoculating patients within the last few weeks after getting their staff vaccinated, are key to Philadelphia’s vaccine distribution process. In recent weeks, city hospitals have vaccinated thousands of adults 75 and older, and adults with high-risk health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. But many others in these eligible groups have not responded to invitations to register through online health portals — no surprise to many who have looked at how patients use such systems.
» READ MORE: For Philly hospitals, phone calls more effective than digital platforms at registering seniors for COVID-19 vaccines
— Jason Laughlin and Justin McDaniel
Monday morning roundup: Pfizer vaccine appears to reduce transmission of the virus
Bloomberg: Pfizer’s COVID-19 appeared to be 89.4% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infections in Israel, more data that suggests the vaccine reduces transmission of the virus. The preliminary observational analysis by Israel’s Health Ministry has not yet been peer-reviewed. The results are the latest in a series of positive data to emerge out of Israel, which has given more COVID-19 vaccines per capita than anywhere else in the world.
CNN: Anthony Fauci said Sunday that it’s “possible” Americans will still need to wear masks in 2022 to protect against the coronavirus, even as the United States may reach “a significant degree of normality” by the end of this year. Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union whether he thinks Americans will still need to wear masks next year, Fauci replied: “You know, I think it is possible that that’s the case and, again, it really depends on what you mean by normality.”
Washington Post: The White House on Sunday reiterated that teachers do not need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus before schools can reopen, a stance Biden administration officials say is in line with scientific guidelines but that puts them at odds with some teachers unions that have insisted members will not return to the classroom until they receive the vaccine.
New York Times: The number of Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 is at its lowest since early November, just before the surge that went on to ravage the country for months. There were 56,159 people hospitalized as of Feb. 21, according to the Covid Tracking Project. That’s the lowest since Nov. 7.