Coronavirus Philadelphia: Officials Warning About City's Finances With No End In Sight To COVID-19 Pandemic
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia officials are warning about the toll COVID-19 is taking on the city's finances. It comes as Pennsylvania looks to begin reopening next month, a process that won't happen in our region for some time.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is looking to begin reopening parts of the state on May 8, but the first wave of businesses reopening will begin with construction sites a week earlier. State and city officials are working closely together to orchestrate a safe plan of action on these sites.
"The longer that we're shut down in the business community, the worse the revenue will be," Mayor Jim Kenney said. "That's why people have to remain disciplined."
One month into stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns, Philadelphia is reeling financially with Kenney proposing a revised budget to address the COVID-19 crisis next week.
There's a glimmer of hope as health officials say they're seeing a leveling off of coronavirus cases, but no sign of a peak just yet.
"You don't know whether you're past the peak until you pass it and you can look back and say, 'OK, the number of cases we're seeing now are lower than they were a week ago or two weeks ago," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said.
Densely-populated Philadelphia shows the highest number of positive cases, with more than 11,000 to date, and hundreds of new cases are being reported every day.
State officials can still not give a definitive timeline on when the city would move into the reopening stage.
"It's impossible for me to give you a specific estimate. As Dr. [Anthony] Fauci has said and the governor has repeated, the virus determines the timeline. We don't determine the timeline," Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said.