Theaters, indoor shopping, child care gets ready for green phase in southeastern Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The southeastern region of Pennsylvania is scheduled to enter the green phase on Friday, excluding Philadelphia which is scheduled for July 3.

Under Governor Tom Wolf's guidelines, theaters, gyms, hair salons, bars and restaurants and casinos can reopen at 50% capacity. Malls may also resume indoor shopping.

The Bryn Mawr Film Institute will not reopen right away.

Executive Director Sam Scott explained they are still determining how to prioritize the safety of customers and are considering filtering the air, as well as requiring moviegoers to wear masks.

"Between online ticketing and being able to space people as they come in, we're pretty confident we'll be able to do this safely," said Scott. "In addition, we also have disinfection on a regular basis, we'll have staggered showtimes."

Child care centers in Pennsylvania will also start up again. The YMCA of Greater Philadelphia will reopen 10 branches in the southeastern Pennsylvania region except for their five Philadelphia locations

"What we're doing is cohort distancing," said Greater Philadelphia YMCA CEO Shaun Elliot. "So think of a group of 10: nine kids, one counselor. They will not interact with other groups so that all the individual groups will not cross paths. So if there is a child that has been exposed to COVID-19, we can at least have groups isolated."

On Friday, the Willow Grove Mall will reopen its doors. Its parent company PREIT gave Action News a tour of their Cherry Hill location, explaining that all locations will have hand sanitizer and visual reminders to stay six feet apart.

"You're going to see hand sanitizer, our cleaning staff will be cleaning more often," said Senior Marketing Director Lisa Wolstromer. "We have social distancing floor graphics on the floor to remind people to stay 6 feet apart. We have signage throughout the mall, limiting our elevators to four people, reminding people when they're on the escalator to stay three steps apart."

As we slowly get back to normal, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Kate Cronan, with Nemours DuPont Hospital for Children, explained wearing a mask is critical and recommends taking things slow.

"I wouldn't go to a movie and then shopping and a mall and everything," said Dr. Cronan. "I would try to limit what I do in the beginning and always use the precautions that we talked about."

Dr. Croan said washing hands is critical and if people do go to the mall, it's best to go early in the day or later in the evening.