She is a board-certified family physician with a doctor of medicine degree from Thomas Jefferson University. She also holds a master’s of public health from Johns Hopkins University.

According to WHYY, before working at the Health Department, Bettigole saw patients at a Federally Qualified Health Center serving immigrants in southern New Jersey, and as a doctor and clinical director at the city’s health centers she treated patients for over a decade.

“Throughout her entire career, Dr. Bettigole has demonstrated a deep commitment to prioritizing equity, access, and prevention in public health,” Kenney said in a statement.

The Health Commissioner keeps racial equity as a priority for her new position. She plans to hire the city’s first chief racial equity officer and create a health equity plan for the Health Department.

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Bettigole aims to increase access to primary care because it was clear how much easier it was during the pandemic for people to access health care when they had doctors they trusted.

In addition, she hopes to rewrite several of the city’s emergency planning documents, those for mass death events, another pandemic, or a toxin release, for example using an equity perspective.

“Unless we have a very, very intentional focus on equity before all else, the general forces of structural racism are such that the whole system pushes away from equity,” she said.

A lesson learned

Bettigole considers the real impact of those forces as a lesson learned from the pandemic. “It’s not that we didn’t understand how powerful those forces were, because we work in public health and you come up against that all the time. But the scope of that, and how much ingenuity and planning and sheer resources that takes, is probably the greatest thing we learned from the pandemic.”

Until her appointment as interim commissioner, she was director of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention for the Health Department. In that role, which she had held since 2015, Bettigole worked on the regulation of tobacco products and the establishment of a new injury prevention program focused on the prevention of gun violence, among other efforts.

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The rates only include workers who received their doses in Philadelphia.

According to WHYY, the most vaccinated city department is the Law Department, where 91% to 100% of workers are vaccinated. Also among the departments with the highest vaccination rates were the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Mayor’s Office, Innovation and Technology, and the Department of Public Health, all ranging from 81 to 90% vaccinated as of Thursday.

The least vaccinated department was the Streets Department, where just 41% to 50% of workers are vaccinated.

Between 51 and 60% of employees are vaccinated in both the Philadelphia police and fire departments. That range represents a jump from just over a week ago when the mayor’s office reported that only 13% of police officers were vaccinated.

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Health Department spokesman James Garrow said the reported percentages were for the number of people in those departments who submitted proof of vaccination to the city’s human resources system. This percentage is based on actual records maintained by the city and does not rely on workers reporting their vaccination rates.

The current Philadelphia mandate requires any city employee who is not vaccinated to double mask at all times.

Great progress

“Our goal is [to] make sure that everyone in the city, employees and otherwise, gets vaccinated,” said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole in a statement. “While we’re making great progress on that, there’s still plenty of work to do.”

Bettigole added that to help encourage city employees to get vaccinated, the Health Department will continue to provide educational resources regarding vaccine safety and effectiveness. As for all Philadelphians, to place vaccine clinics in the areas of the city with the lowest vaccination rates. Non-uniformed employees also get four hours of time off if they upload their vaccination status to the city’s system.

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“Because of the rapid increase in cases here and around the country, and because we are seeing hospitalizations rise among children in Philadelphia, we are now strongly recommending that everyone mask while indoors in places where you do not know that everyone is vaccinated,” stated the Health Department on its website.

Double masking

The authorities also are asking residents to consider double masking. “People who are not yet fully vaccinated should take additional precautions including avoiding crowded indoor spaces and considering double masking. In general, we recommend that you choose outdoor public places over indoors when you have the option as transmission is much less likely in outdoor settings.”

“People who are fully vaccinated against COVID have been found to be very well protected, although as with any vaccine, that protection is not 100%,” Health Officials added.

As reported by eater.com, since the COVID-19 Delta variant began spreading across the United States., and with children under 12 not currently eligible for the vaccine, city officials are concerned that case numbers and hospitalizations could spike again in Philadelphia.

Vulnerable children

The city has seen a rise in cases recently, registering 64 new cases per day in the past two weeks, compared to an average of 24 cases per day at the end of June. “We are seeing a small but disturbing increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 among children in Philadelphia, along with more than a doubling of cases in the city,” Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said in a statement on Thursday.

Besides the use of masks indoor, the Health Department stressed the importance of getting vaccinated. “The best way to protect yourself is to be fully vaccinated. Research has shown that having two doses of the Pfizer vaccine or the Moderna vaccine, both of which have been shown to be safe and effective, is more than 90% protective against the Delta variant.”

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“You can find the hundreds of locations that are administering the vaccines in Philadelphia, all for free, and often without an appointment needed, at phila.gov/vaccine.”

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“For nearly fifteen months, the City of Philadelphia has had restrictions in place to protect each other, and I have no doubt that these restrictions saved countless lives,” said Mayor Jim Kenney. “But Friday will be a day that we’ve all been looking forward to: getting back to doing the things that we love.”

According to nbcphiladelphia.com, Kenney highlighted the important role played by the vaccination process in achieving the lifting of the restrictions. “Thanks to the more than two-thirds of adults who’ve been vaccinated already, we can finally do the things that we’ve missed doing for the last year. I urge everyone who has not been vaccinated to join the more than 800,000 fellow Philadelphians so we can continue to move forward from the pandemic.”

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Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole also expressed her enthusiasm for the good news. “Due to the lowest new case counts that we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic, we are now excited to lift the last of the Safer-at-Home restrictions.”

Still cautious

However, she noted the importance of being aware that the pandemic is not over. “Lifting the requirement for vaccinated people to wear masks indoors doesn’t mean that we are totally past COVID-19. Dozens of Philadelphians are still being diagnosed with COVID-19 every day, which means that more of us still need to get vaccinated.”

Philadelphia will still require masks to be worn indoors in select settings, including but not limited to healthcare institutions and events such as vaccine clinics and blood drives, prisons, shelters, adult day programs, trains, buses, taxis, rideshare vehicles, indoor schools, camps and early childhood education.

Last month, health officials in Pennsylvania announced that the rest of the state will completely lift mask restrictions June 28, or possibly sooner, if 70% of residents get their second dose of vaccine.

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Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said during a briefing those who have received the complete procedure of COVID- 19 vaccination are protected from catching and spreading the virus. She urged people who have not been vaccinated or people who are within the vaccine process to continue to wear a mask.

“While we’re going to go ahead and relax outdoor mask guidance, since we know COVID is rarely transmitted outside, we’re going to wait a bit longer to relax indoor mask rules,” Bettigole said.

Previously to the mask mandate lifting, the city announced the increase of capacity limits in most settings to 50% and the reduction of social distancing from six feet to three feet on Friday. Restaurants and bars are still capped at 50%, or 75% with enhanced ventilation, but now customers will be able to buy alcohol without needing to purchase food.

Mask mandate reviewed

According to a 6 ABC report, if the numbers keep the desired tendency, Philadelphia health authorities will continue to ask everyone to wear masks indoors and then the mask mandate will be reviewed again two weeks later. But, regardless of the changes for fully vaccinated, the city says people who have not completed the vaccination process, should continue to wear masks when around others indoors.

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“Based on the most recent studies, we can now be comfortable, finally, that people who are fully vaccinated are not only protected from getting sick from COVID, they’re also protected from passing it to others,” Bettigole said over the removal of the mask mandate.

On June 11, Philadelphia will lift its ‘Safer at Home’ COVID-19 restrictions, other than the mask requirements. The rest of Pennsylvania will do the same two weeks earlier.

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