WEBVTT

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mm hmm. So today I'm announcing that we have

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reached the threshold from moving out of the all clear

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covid response level and into the mask precautions level.

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Simply put that means that we're reintroducing the mask mandate

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in philadelphia. We'll have a one week education period

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to allow time for us to get the word out

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. We hope that by having folks masked up whenever

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they're in public indoor spaces we can get ahead of

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the wave and keep it from reaching a peak.

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Like we saw in january with the american variant.

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If we can do that, we can literally save

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the lives of vulnerable Philadelphians. We don't know if

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the be a two variant in philadelphia will have the

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kind of impact on hospitalizations and deaths that we saw

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with the original american variant this winter. I suspect

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that this wave will be smaller than the one we

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saw in january. But if we wait to find

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out and to put our masks back on, we'll

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have lost our chance to stop the wave. If

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we mask up now and find out that hospitalizations don't

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increase in the U. S. In response to

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this variant, the way they have in the UK

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and great. We can then take off our masks

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with a sense of relief. But if we fail

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to act now knowing that every previous wave of infections

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has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations and then

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a wave of debts. It will be too late

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for many of our residents