SEPTA in partnership with Delaware County announced that free vaccinations will be available tomorrow and every Thursday in February at the 69th Street Transportation Center.

First and second vaccination shots will be available as well as boosters and pediatric vaccines for ages 5-11, the transit agency said.

The clinic, which will offer the Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J vaccines along with COVID-19 testing, will be open from 4 to 7 p.m in the main lobby known as the Grand Hall.

Vaccinations will be free with no appointments, ID, or health insurance needed.

Anyone with questions can contact the Delco COVID-19 Call Center at 484-276-2100.

The 69th Street Transportation Center is located at 6901 Market St. in Upper Darby.

— Robert Moran

About 50% of eligible New Jerseyans have gotten booster shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, officials said Wednesday.

“We still have much work to do,” said state health commissioner Judith Persichilli. “Only 46% of staff in long-term care facilities have gotten a booster dose so we must do better.”

Gov. Phil Murphy pointed to state breakthrough case data from the past month, data that shows just how effective the extra doses are in preventing serious illness and death. Of New Jerseyans who had completed a primary vaccine series, 26 people per capita died of COVID-19 from Dec. 26 to Jan. 22., compared 10 per capita who received a primary course and only .5 per capita who received a booster.

— Erin McCarthy

The omicron surge is continuing to decline in New Jersey, with each coronavirus case leading to an average of less than one other case in recent days, Gov. Phil Murphy said.

“Trends that we are seeing across literally all metrics continue to suggest the omicron tsunami, as fast as it washed in, is washing out at nearly the same speed,” the governor said, noting that the rate of transmission has not been below 1 for this many days in “a long time.”

Virus-related hospitalizations have dropped more than 30% in the past two weeks, he said, though nearly 2,800 people are still being treated at facilities across the state. Nearly 2,400 people died of the virus in January, he said, disproving “this misinformation that omicron isn’t deadly.”

That means it’s not time to fully exhale and return to normal, Murphy said.

“Even with these numbers dropping, none of us are yet at a point where we feel completely comfortable,” Murphy said. “We know the staff in our hospitals are still overwhelmed and we can’t yet let up on any measures.”

— Erin McCarthy

Beginning Monday, the Philadelphia School District will supply its employees with KN95 masks.

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. made the announcement Wednesday, telling staff they could request up to five KN95 masks from their bosses.

“The district is working hard to procure KN95 masks and the replenishment of this initial supply of masks will depend on availability,” Hite wrote in an email to employees. “KN95 masks can be worn until soiled or damaged.”

Cloth masks alone are no longer considered to be effective against the COVID-19 spread. The district has updated its COVID-19 protocols to indicate that staff and students who choose to wear a cloth mask should double mask, with the cloth mask over a three-ply disposable mask. The school system is providing surgical masks, not KN95s, to students.

That the district was not providing staff with KN95s was a sticking point. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers pushed the district to provide them.

Hite, in the Wednesday email to staff, also noted the district is now limiting contact tracing to close contacts during “periods of higher risk transmission where masks cannot be worn, such as meal times, choir rooms and band practice rooms.”

The district is, however, keeping 10-day quarantines for those who test positive for COVID-19. Both the CDC and CHOP PolicyLab had suggested in new guidance that quarantines can be dropped to five days from 10, but the Philadelphia Department of Public Health has recommended the district keep the longer quarantine, whether individuals are vaccinated or unvaccinated.

Schools will also no longer be closed for in-person learning because of high COVID-19 case counts, Hite said; only staffing levels will dictate when a school shifts to virtual learning.

— Kristen A. Graham

Ominously nicknamed the “stealth variant,” the latest COVID-19 viral version arrives in the U.S. with the usual uncertainty that accompanies every iteration of the virus.

Early evidence out of Denmark, where the subvariant, dubbed dubbed BA.2, now accounts for 65% of all cases, points to a strain of COVID-19 that spreads more effectively than the original omicron variant. That variant’s likelihood of spreading within a household with one affected member is about 29%, compared to 39% for BA.2. It appears the risk of infection for vaccinated people is higher as well.

A British study, though, found vaccines appeared to be just as effective on the subvariant as on the original omicron.

Vaccinated people are less likely to spread the subvariant, the Danish data suggested, than original omicron.

An earlier Danish study showed no increase in rates of hospitalizations as the new subvariant spread.

“We don’t know whether or not this is going to be a second surge or it’s just going to be something that circulates at a lower level,” said Paul Planet, an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and head of the hospital’s sequencing lab.

» READ MORE: What to know about BA.2, the new omicron subvariant

— Jason Laughlin

As the FDA and CDC are set to consider approving the COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old, Philadelphia health officials are working on logistics for vaccinating babies and toddlers.

Pharmacies cannot vaccinate children younger than 3, who normally receive immunizations from their doctors. That presents “an infrastructure problem” for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which has largely relied on distribution of shots at pharmacies, Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said at a virtual briefing Wednesday.

”We’re very excited to have young children start to get their protection, but we can’t just have little babies and toddlers showing up to pharmacies,” Bettigole said. “The rollout for that vaccine will be quite different than what we’ve been doing over the last 13 months.”

Officials hope to have babies vaccinated by their primary care providers, but many doctors are not registered as COVID-19 vaccine providers. The city is talking with pediatricians in hopes of getting them signed up before the vaccine is approved.

Many doctors did not sign up to provide the coronavirus vaccine at the start of the pandemic, Bettigole said, because they needed ultra-cold freezer units or felt the CDC-required reporting was challenging. Now, the vaccine can be stored without an ultra-cold freezer for two to four weeks, depending on the type of refrigeration, according to Pfizer, which is seeking approval for its vaccine for young children.

Bettigole said officials are hoping vaccination can occur through regular primary-care networks and the city can avoid setting up a mass network of clinics for babies and toddlers across Philadelphia.

”If we can get lots and lots of primary care practitioners signed up and able to get vaccine, that’s going to make this whole process a lot easier for parents,” she said. “I’d love to see kids getting these vaccines at their normal pediatric visits.”

» READ MORE: Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 may be available by end of February, sources say

— Justine McDaniel

New COVID-19 cases in Philadelphia have dropped 50% since last week and are down nearly 85% since the omicron surge’s peak, Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Wednesday, but the city remains “not out of the woods” even as the situation improves.

”If things continue the way they are, we could start to see things getting back to some semblance of normal,” she said, but “we’re still in the CDC’s high level of community transmission. Things are still bad out there.”

The city looks likely to record 300 deaths in January. Most Philadelphians still need their booster shots, Bettigole said, meaning most in the city are still “at high risk” of severe illness, hospitalization, long-term COVID, or death. The booster dose is necessary to protect against omicron.

The positive-test rate in the city is 7.3%, the lowest it has been since Dec. 21. On Tuesday, 686 people were hospitalized, less than half the number at the peak two weeks ago.

”There’s a lot of good news on the horizon,” Bettigole said, “but keep wearing your mask.”

— Justine McDaniel

Philadelphia officials hope to eventually drop the city’s indoor mask mandate but don’t anticipate that happening soon, Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said at a virtual briefing Wednesday.

The city is likely several months away from being able to drop all current restrictions, she said. Officials have begun discussing “offramp” plans for easing restrictions and providing guidance to residents about when it’s safer to resume activities like indoor gathering, but those plans are still in progress.

The city will also consider when it might eliminate the vaccine mandate for indoor dining at restaurants, which Bettigole said would not be permanent.

”If you think about where we are with this particular wave and case rates right now, we’re probably several months away from a place where we will have the kind of safety to drop all the current restrictions,” Bettigole said.

She noted that the city is still recording about 500 cases a day, a number that doesn’t account for at-home positive tests, and expects to log 300 deaths from COVID-19 in January alone.

Philadelphia health officials are “actively discussing” what thresholds would have to be reached before the mask restriction is lifted, she said, but it’ll likely be a combination of virus-related hospitalizations, case counts, deaths, and possible other metrics.

”We are not at a point where we would drop the mask mandate,” Bettigole said. “Eventually, absolutely, but not at this time.”

— Justine McDaniel and Erin McCarthy

Officials in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and at the White House will offer COVID-19 updates on Wednesday. Here’s a schedule of how to watch and stream:

— Rob Tornoe

The vaccine mandate for Philadelphia city workers has been delayed until at least Feb. 11, following a decision Tuesday by a labor arbitration panel that requires police officers to comply.

Like other city workers, officers may request vaccination exemptions for medical or religious reasons, but those whose requests are denied or who otherwise fail to show proof of vaccination will be placed on leave and could be fired.

In its ruling, the arbitration panel noted it took into account that the department has “struggled to contain an epidemic of gun violence.” The department says it is at its lowest staffing levels in years and is struggling to recruit new cops.

The decision marks the third arrangement between Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration and the city’s major unions over the vaccine mandate, which was first announced in November.

» READ MORE: Philly’s vaccine mandate for city workers is delayed again after a decision requiring police to comply

— Sean Collins Walsh and Anna Orso

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the region, though infection rates remain high, even as the omicron wave recedes.

Philadelphia is averaging 804 new cases a day over the past seven days, a 72% decline compared to two weeks ago. New cases are also down 70% in New Jersey, where the state is averaging just more than 6,000 cases a day.

Here are the latest COVID-19 numbers for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, according to data from the New York Times and the Department of Health and Human Services:

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Delaware

United States

— Rob Tornoe

Many thousands of Americans have been infected with the omicron strain of COVID-19 in the last month, including many who were vaccinated.

That’s no knock against the vaccines. They remain very effective at preventing severe disease and death, especially for those who have received three doses: an initial two plus a booster.

But most people — including hundreds of thousands in the Philadelphia area — have not gotten a booster. If they’ve recovered from an infection with omicron, can they skip the third shot? Now that cases are once again on the decline, are they good to go?

In the short term, probably yes, according to researchers who study the immune system. But as with so much else during the last two years, the answer is complicated and still emerging. And another variant will likely arrive.

For the latest on what some are calling “hybrid immunity,” we spoke to Brianne Barker, a Drew University biologist who studies the immune system’s response to viruses; Jeremy Kamil, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport; and E. John Wherry, director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

But first, a reminder: No one should ever contemplate getting infected on purpose.

» READ MORE: Is an omicron infection as good as a booster? What the science says about ‘hybrid’ immunity.

— Tom Avril

A roundup of COVID-19 news from across the United States and around the globe: