Philadelphia is issuing a new “stay at home” order for all residents starting at 8 a.m. Monday, the city’s managing director Brian Abernathy said Sunday.
The city’s emergency restrictions will no longer expire on March 27, and will remain in effect “until further notice,” Abernathy said.
The order also bans all public and private gatherings of any number of people outside a single household except for limited purposes, including shopping for or delivering essential goods, going to work at an essential business, and exercising while maintaining social distancing.
Walk-in takeout orders will also be prohibited, and food and ice cream trucks will not be allowed to operate. All to-go food orders must be paid online in advance. Food delivery services can also continue.
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“Stay home,” Abernathy said. “Now is not the time for a meetup in a parking lot, a party or a basketball game.”
During a statewide update, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine could not say with certainty if stricter restrictions like the ones in Philadelphia were coming statewide.
“Discussions are being had with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, with PEMA, with local officials, and of course, with the governor’s office on the possibilities of ‘stay at home’ or ‘shelter in place,’” said Levine. “So I don’t have any new information at this time except that conversations are occurring.”
Still, she emphasized that a shelter-in-place order would still allow people to go out and purchase food and other essentials.
