Philadelphia revives mask mandate as COVID-19 cases surge

Philadelphians will have to wear masks inside public spaces again as the pandemic resurfaces in the city, where COVID-19 infections have spiked in recent weeks, city officials said Monday.

"We're putting this into place on the early side; if we were to wait for hospitalizations and deaths to rise, it's already too late," Cheryl Bettigole, the city's health commissioner, told a news conference Monday afternoon. "We have reached the threshold" previously set to reintroduce a requirement that residents must cover their faces inside public areas," the physician added.

Philadelphia is now experiencing 142 new COVID-19 cases a day, a rate that is more than 50% higher than what the city was seeing 10 days ago.