Coronavirus In Philadelphia: Thousands Of Workers Laid Off After All Non-Essential Businesses Forced To Close
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the first time, Philadelphia officials announced today there is evidence of community spread of coronavirus in the city. Community spread is when someone becomes infected in a certain area but that person had no known contact with other infected individuals.
CBS3's Matt Petrillo asked Philadelphia's health commissioner Dr. Tom Farley where in the city is the community spread- he didn't want to say.
"Nobody should think it's in that neighborhood or not my neighborhood," he said
The number of people with the coronavirus in Philadelphia now stands at 18. Just one is of them being treated in a hospital, while the others are in self-isolation, as health officials hope to ramp up testing.
"Most of those tests will be negative and that will be OK but we need to test many negatives in order to find the few positives that are out there in order to make sure that chain of infections stop," Dr. Farley said.
On Tuesday, city officials also re-iterated non-essential businesses should remain closed for at least the next two weeks
"We recognize the huge disruption that these closures are having on our small businesses and workers, Philadelphia Managing Director Brian Abernathy said.
Life, as we know it in Philadelphia, will be quite different for some time. The city is in its first full-day of having all non-essential businesses closed and thousands of workers have been laid off because of it.
Usually, the foot traffic in Center City would be almost shoulder to shoulder, but that's not the case right now. It is so low, some businesses that didn't have to close, shut their doors anyway.
"I feel very helpless," one person said.
If the coronavirus has not affected your physical health, it may have affected your financial health as a dizzying number of laid-off scramble to figure out how they'll pay bills.
"My rent and my cellphone and how I'm going to eat," Michael Scriber said.
At the Philadelphia International Airport, shops and restaurants are allowed to stay open, but most of them -- more than 140 -- are closed.
Roughly 1,000 retail employees at the airport have recently been laid off. So are another 3,000 people who worked at Philadelphia's stadiums.
"I'm just trying to get to the end of the week," Scriber said.
The concession employee was recently told to sign up for unemployment.
"It's less than half of what I would make if I worked this week," he said.
There are some signs of life like here at the Reading Terminal Market where most places are open.
Amazon is actually hiring some positions like delivery drivers.
Philadelphia city leaders are working with state officials to develop a business support program. Still, Mayor Jim Kenney knows the city will need much more help.
"This is a national issue and we're expecting our national government does what they're supposed to do and make sure that we're whole," Kenney said.
Philadelphia health officials also announced today community spread of the coronavirus is evident.
