1 Year After First Coronavirus Case, Philly Is 'Finally Winning'

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said the city is "finally winning" the fight against coronavirus despite rising cases one year after the city's first confirmed case was reported.

During a news conference Tuesday, Farley reflected on the past year as March 10 marks the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed case in the city.

"Overall, it’s been a long difficult year for everyone," he said. "More than 120,000 people have been known to be infected, more than 14,000 hospitalized, and more than 3,100 have died from this infection."

He said everyone in the city has suffered in some way due to the pandemic.

"People have lost their jobs, people have been out of school, people have lost their loved ones and everyone suffered just from being physically apart from the ones we care about," he said.

Farley said he estimated the city's death toll from the virus would have been about 6,000 people if no actions, such as forcing businesses to close and limiting gatherings, were taken. The total number of deaths reported Tuesday is 3,169.

"We lost many people, but saved many people," he said. "After all these tough months over 12 months, we are finally winning."

While Farley is optimistic for the spring's outlook, he said he is sure there will be many more problems ahead, saying the fight is not over yet.

However, cases are rising again in the city, he said Tuesday.

Farley reported 330 new cases Tuesday, bringing the city's total case count to 115,997 total.

Last week, the city saw an average of 260 cases per day and 4.4 percent positivity rate. Both of those figures have increased from the week before, which saw 258 average daily cases and had a 3.5 percent positivity rate.

Farley said should cases continue to rise, more restrictions could be imposed in areas where spread it occurring.

"I would hate to do that," he said. "Many people are unhappy with those restrictions and I understand that."

He said people need to continue wearing masks and avoiding gatherings.

Additionally, figures for the week ending Feb. 27 were 242 average daily cases and a 3.5 percent positivity rate; and the week ending Feb. 20 also saw 242 average daily cases and a 4 percent positivity rate.

Farley's words about winning, however, are true in a certain sense.

More Philadelphians have been vaccinated than been confirmed to have cases of the virus.

As of Tuesday, 297,030 Phialdelphians have gotten their first doses of the vaccine and 124,578 have been fully vaccinated.

The city is getting more doses of the vaccine, too. This week the city got 19,890 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 15,600 first doses of the Moderna vaccine.

Farley said the FEMA-run mass vaccination site in the Pennsylvania Convention Center is giving about 42,000 a week.