PHILADELPHIA (CelebrityAccess) — On Tuesday, officials in Philadelphia announced that the city is putting the kibosh on all large permitted public gatherings through the end of February.
The news will impact multiple major events in the City of Brotherly Love, including the the Philadelphia Marathon, Broad Street Run, and the Thanksgiving Day parade, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“Philadelphia has built up a reputation for hosting spectacular events of all sizes,” Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney said in a press conference on Tuesday.
As a part of the moratorium on events, the City’s Office of Special Events will not accept, review, process, or approve applications, issue permits, or enter into agreements for special events or public gatherings of 50 or more people on public property through at least February 28, 2021.
”I don’t think they were surprised by the city’s position, and I’d say some of them were relieved,” City managing director Brian Abernathy told the Inquirer. “None of us are happy about the event cancellations, but we all recognize it’s the right thing to do for the public health.”
The Philadelphia Eagles suggested earlier on Tuesday that the team’s games might be exempt from the ban on public events, but Abernathy told the Inquirer that the rules apply to them as well.
“We have been in communication with the Eagles. We have told them our expectations are that they don’t have fans,” Abernathy told the Inquirer.
To date, Philadelphia has seen more than 27,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 1,600 deaths.
