Limit Holiday Gatherings To 1 Household: Philly Health Officials

PHILADELPHIA — If you plan to have a holiday gathering, keep it limited to one household or keep it very small.

That's the advice offered by Philadelphia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole Wednesday.

During a new conference, Bettigole urged residents to keep the holiday gatherings small, as the coronavirus sends more people to hospitals and infects more people.

"Our contact tracing tells us that these gatherings, when we get together with friends and family, are when we infect each other with COVID," Bettigole said Wednesday. "We saw it with Thanksgiving, and I worry that people who were getting together then likely contributed to the cases we're seeing now."

Those planning to get together with others outside their households should get rapid tests ahead of the gatherings, she said.

Additionally, she said anyone who feels unwell at all to avoid gatherings.

In Philadelphia, 380 people are being treated in hospitals for coronavirus, 59 of whom are in the intensive care unit and 42 or whom are on ventilators, according to state data.

To date, 183,389 coronavirus cases have been identified in the city, and 4,164 people have died from the virus, state data shows.

Bettigole also pushed vaccinations. As of Wednesday, 948,065 people 12 and older have been full vaccinated in Philadelphia, a vaccination rate of 70.7 percent, according to city data. As for partial vaccinations, city data shows 1.18 million people — or 88.3 percent — 12 and older have at least one dose.

Find where and when to get a vaccine here.