Philly Coronavirus News: Eerie New Drone Video Perfectly Captures Philly Under Quarantine

A screenshot from a new drone video of Philadelphia during the coronavirus crisis. (Courtesy 717 Drone Guys)

A roundup of Philly coronavirus news.

New Drone Video Captures Philly Under Coronavirus Quarantine

You know the scene in the apocalyptic movie when someone wakes to find that most of humanity is gone? Well, a new drone video of Philadelphia during the coronavirus quarantine captures that concept quite eerily.

The drone video comes to us from 717 Drone Guys, a father-son team based out of Lititz in Lancaster County.

The video captures normally populated areas like the Parkway, Old City, Independence Mall, and Penn’s Landing, among other locations.

And, because folks are sometimes concerned when drones go taking videos overhead, the pilots had this to say:

All necessary FAA permissions were obtained and extreme social distancing was practiced during these flights. The airspace above Independence Hall is “geo-fenced” (the drone is unable to fly into that area), however the camera’s zoom lens helps to make objects appear closer than they are in reality.

Check out the video below:

Krasner Blasts Wolf Over Coronavirus Prison Releases

There’s a huge controversy unfolding across the country regarding coronavirus and prisons. Thanks to overcrowding and other poor prison conditions, the prison population and prison staff are at huge risk for coronavirus. But what do you do about it? Do you just let prisoners out of prison?

Yes, say many advocates across the country, including in Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, 30 public health experts, community leaders, and others fired off a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf demanding the release of thousands of prisoners in the state.

“In the best of times, healthcare in the correctional setting is challenging,” reads the letter. “Because of the close quarters in which incarcerated people live, prisons and jails are highly susceptible to outbreaks of cold, flu, MRSA, and other staph infections, as well as transmission of viral infectious diseases like hepatitis. These are not the best of times. The CDC-recommended method of social distancing in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 is simply not possible in the 45,000 person [Pennsylvania Department of Corrections], even if the system is closed by quarantine.”

After the letter went out, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement. He said that action was long overdue.

“The time to act in order to save lives was three weeks ago, but we can still prevent a lot of harm by acting right now,” reads part of the statement. “State correctional facilities are hotbeds for the rapid spread of coronavirus. And if there are outbreaks in these facilities there will soon be outbreaks outside of them in our communities. We must prevent from happening in Pennsylvania what has been happening at New York’s Rikers Island, where COVID-19 has been spreading more than 85 times faster than the average rate of infection in the U.S.”

Meanwhile, Wolf is said to be waiting for the Pennsylvania legislature to act, but the plan that’s being floated among legislators would reportedly only release 450 of the state’s 45,000 prisoners, and that’s just not enough, say some experts.

NJ Issues Coronavirus Face-Covering Order to All Grocery Stores

On Tuesday, we pointed out a big problem in Pennsylvania grocery stores during the coronavirus outbreak: many grocery store workers remain unmasked.

Two days later, we haven’t seen any reason to believe that the situation in Pennsylvania has changed at all. But it’s a different story altogether in New Jersey.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has issued an order telling all grocery store workers — and shoppers, for that matter — to cover their faces.

It’s only common sense, and we can’t imagine that Pennsylvania will be too far behind on this one.

Fox 29’s Steve Keeley Gets Biblical Over the Coronavirus

Sometimes, we need a good laugh injected into our day during this coronavirus mess. And Fox 29 reporter Steve Keeley brought us one on the morn’ of Holy Thursday. Though, as usual, we’re laughing at Keeley, not with him.

Now, if you’re not a regular Fox 29 viewer, a brief primer.

Keeley is the one with the always orange-y skin.

There’s the viral snow plow incident:

And, yes, Keeley is the one who couldn’t help but make inappropriate on-air jokes about his colleague Mike Jerrick, because Jerrick chose to wear a pink sweater.

Keeley basically says whatever comes through his head. And during the Thursday morning broadcast of Good Day Philadelphia, Keeley just had to make the astute observation that Jesus wouldn’t have been able to hold the Last Supper right now due to government restrictions on gatherings.

God bless you, Steve Keeley. We don’t know what we’d do without you.