Phillies

Philadelphia Lifting the Mask Order for Outdoor Events

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 19th, 2021 · 12:59 PM EDT

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Rejoice!

Philadelphia is lifting its mask mandate for outdoor events, beginning this Friday. That means if you’re going down to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies offense come alive after the seventh inning, you can ditch the face covering.

Dave has been updating us on this stuff every week:

City of #Philadelphia Acting Health Commissioner, Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said the following

For those going to the #Phillies game this weekend at Citizens Bank Park will not have to wear masks

The mask order remains for the Wells Fargo Center for #Sixers playoffs pic.twitter.com/lMuyIuosV5

— David Malandra Jr (@DaveMReports) May 19, 2021

As for indoor events, the city is eliminating all capacity limits on June 11th, and with that will consider dropping the mask mandate as well.

More on that from NBC 10:

The city will review its standing as of the week of June 6 and could still delay the mask removal mandate.

Daily COVID cases and the positivity rate have declined over the past several weeks as vaccines increased, Bettigole said.

To date, more than 633,000 people in Philadelphia are fully vaccinated, according to city data.

Bettigole had a message for people who still haven’t gotten the vaccine.

“People who are not fully vaccinated will be required to wear masks around others,” she said.

Looking at the timeline, it seems as though we might be able to go maskless with a full capacity Wells Fargo Center sometime during the second round of the NBA playoffs. That’s if the positivity rates look favorable. So it’s conceivable that if the trend holds, and the Sixers advance, we might get 100% capacity for the back end of a Sixers/Knicks or Sixers/Hawks series, and then that will carry into the Eastern Conference Finals.

But we don’t want to jinx it.