Masking

Masking is currently mandatory  and will be lifted when 70% of the state 18 and older is vaccinated.

There is a large variation in a very bipolar state. I can speak for Philadelphia mostly but also central PA to a lesser extent. In Philadelphia in most places mask wearing inside is near 100% for a place like Walmart during basically the entire pandemic. This drops to nearly zero for any seated indoor dining unless the person is walking to use the bathroom or something of that nature. Walking around the city right now mask wearing is roughly 60% on the sidewalks, and 25% in parks.

Schools

Most of the pandemic roughly End of March to say March of this year mask wearing was maybe 80%+ outside and 95% inside except nearly 0% for dining. I would say 95% of masks are worn correctly over nose and mouth.

Schools did shut down. These things were decided by the district for the whole district. Until next week no high school or middle school students have been in person. It has been all virtual. Elementary has been doing option hybrid classes for a while. Hybrid means students can come to the building 2 days each week. in a school of 900 kids 50 will be in the building 4 days a week.

Private schools follow different rules and can be open. Many have had in person or hybrid classes. They have not because they are not open yet. Teachers will be tested every Friday and have been there to prep for 2 weeks with no positive tests yet.

Restaurants

Depending on ventilation in PA it is 75% and 50% for Philadelphia for indoors. They are largely followed, however there are some bars and restaurants who do not follow regulations. There are some bars that basically ignore all the regulations. The city does punish places with some regularity. Outdoor dining has limits to parties of 10 in Philadelphia. Everywhere has social distancing regulations.

These current restrictions were put in place on Nov 16, but prior restrictions beforehand

Religious Services

Religious services closed down in March. Currently, there are restrictions of 80 people max for the size of the particular church, pre-registration, all masked, live streamed for those at home, musicians masked and distanced. Any outside ministry is done by zoom.

Movie Theaters

For AMC it was only like 50% capacity, and they blocked off every other section of seats (the seats are in pairs of 2). Private theater rental is available if you call in but not on the website. Early Friday seatings are mostly empty and discounted. In the evening they are about half filled,

Other Stuff

Overall the nature of Pennsylvania means in general less strict regulations for the central part of the state and stricter regulations for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in particular. This follows political trends. Compliance in Philadelphia generally is high, but differs by neighborhood and time of day like most places.

In the central part of the state there are already music festivals. I was at one over the weekend with 2,500 attendees and entirely unmasked including indoors. There are plenty of underground events where people are unmasked as well.

I find snapchat maps to be a useful way of seeing what things are like in other places.

There was also a huge scandal on the vaccine rollout, in which a student was put in charge of the vaccine distribution and administration.