Philly's COVID-19 case counts have steadily risen since the end of the city’s indoor mask mandate, but hospitalizations and deaths have not followed suit.
, but hospitalizations and deaths have not followed suit, a striking change to a pandemic-long pattern of infections leading to serious illness.
Since 2020, a rise in cases has always been followed by increased hospitalization rates about two weeks later, then by heightened death rates.. When cases began rising again in April, the system triggered the return of the indoor mask mandate. Then, just four days after it began, the mandate ended. The number of people hospitalized with COVID declined for two days, and Bettigole called a halt to the mandate.
“I really wish that data was teased apart so we know who is in the hospital because they are sick with COVID,” said Thersa Sweet, associate professor in Drexel University’s department of epidemiology and biostatistics. Regional COVID death rates have followed a similar path, with death rates in South Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs staying in the same low range as case counts surged. Hospitalizations regionally have increased since mid-April, but nowhere near as fast as cases. Since the beginning of April, case rates in Philadelphia have increased 145%, and 252% in nearby Pennsylvania counties. In that same time, hospitalizations across the area increased 83%.