Case counts dip, but officials warn against optimism
Both Allegheny County and the state’s daily COVID19 case count dropped on Friday from a day earlier, even as the state added Butler and Westmoreland counties to the state’s stayat-home order list and two Kane nursing home patients and a county jail staffer tested positive for the disease.
The good news of a drop in the daily case count is no sign yet that the pandemic here has peaked, said state Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine.
“First, we did not have a decline in the number of cases — We had a decline in the number of new cases.” Dr. Levine said in an online news conference with reporters Friday afternoon. “I do not feel that that decline is statistically significant. We would need to see a consistent decline over time to show that maybe we have been able to mitigate the spread or prevent the spread of COVID-19. So it really is too early to tell or make conclusions from the data at this time.”
Whether the stay-athome orders and business closures will end any time soon, Dr. Levine said: “I’d go with what Dr. [Anthony] Fauci said: ‘The virus determines the timetable. We don’t determine the timetable.’” Dr. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Allegheny County reported that it had 25 new positive COVID-19 cases Friday, pushing the countywide total to 158 cases. Friday’s case count was down from 45 new cases Thursday.
The state reported 531 new cases Friday, pushing the statewide total to 2,218 positive cases, with six new deaths reported, for 22 deaths since the pandemic began. Friday’s daily statewide total was down from Thursday’s 560 cases. There is now at least one COVID19 case in 50 of the state’s 67 counties.
Pennsylvania on Friday added Butler and Westmoreland to a growing list of counties around the state on which Gov. Tom Wolf has imposed stay-at-home orders, adding to 19 counties now under such orders, including Allegheny. The orders for the two counties, and seven others added to the list Friday, go into effect at 8 p.m. Friday and will stay in effect till at least April 6.
Dr. Levine said the nine new counties were added to the stay-at-home list after the state kept close watch on their case count and how the cases were spread.
“As those numbers increase to significant levels and we know we have community spread, in those new counties we were seeing those trends,” she said.
Even though daily case counts decreased in Allegheny County, two of the new cases are elderly residents in a county-owned nursing home in Glen Hazel — the same nursing home where two days ago the county reported a staff member had also tested positive.
The county said both residents of the nursing home, which has 217 residents and has had a no-visitor policy since March 13, were tested because of unexplained fevers. They are now in isolation. The county has said that the staff member did not work with patients.
Patients whose rooms are located near the two positive cases are also being tested now, and all staff on the unit will be screened, the county said, including asking about any “sick relatives at home and monitoring for cough and sore throat in all staff and residents.”
All residents will be checked at the end of each shift now, the county said.
Although young people can be infected by the coronavirus, older people, particularly those 70 and older, are most prone to the most critical medical impact of the disease.
That has been seen most horrifically in the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., where 33 residents have died after becoming infected with COVID-19.
The Allegheny County Jail said Friday that the employee who tested positive for COVID-19 “did not provide direct care to inmates at the jail and has not been at work since the afternoon of Thursday, March 19, 2020.”
“At this time, there are no positive cases of COVID19 among direct-contact employees or inmates and all individuals with access to the facility are being strictly monitored for signs and symptoms of the virus,” the county said in a news release.
Of the 158 positive patients in Allegheny County, 25 have been hospitalized.
The county’s death count from COVID-19 remained at two.
“The department is still tracing the contacts of people who have tested positive and is recommending selfquarantine when needed,” the county health department said in a news alert. “We strongly urge all people in Allegheny County to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus in our community.”
In Allegheny County, the cases were nearly split evenly between males and females, with 81 females and 77 males testing positive. The largest age group of positive patients was from 25 to 49, accounting for 42% of all cases in the county.
Pittsburgh’s police, fire and EMS bureaus have all had members self-quarantine or self-isolate, but so far none of them have tested positive for the virus, according to the city’s public safety department.
Ten firefighters this week have been sent home for various reasons, including fever, runny nose and coughing. The firefighters were told not to return to work until they are symptom-free for 72 hours “out of an abundance of caution,” a spokesman for the public safety department said.
In addition, five more firefighters remain out after they were placed in 14day isolation last week. Three of those firefighters had traveled to foreign countries, one had a compromised immune system and the fifth had symptoms.
The public safety department said two EMS workers were in self-isolation for possible COVID-19 exposure.
And some police officers self-isolated last week after exposure to a man who showed virus symptoms. They all returned to the job the next day after the man tested negative and none of the officers showed symptoms, according to the public safety department.
As to when the state’s stay-at-home orders and businesses closures will end, Dr. Levine said it is too soon to tell.
“We don’t know yet how effective the stay-at-home orders have been,” she said. “They have not been in place long enough. It will be weeks and weeks before we see an effect.”
The state is closely watching the number of new cases each day, she said, and “as that plateaus and then starts to go down in a consistent way, that will show us we’re getting a handle on the spread of COVID-19.”
“At that point we’ll discuss that with the governor, and decisions will be made to slowly relax some of the mitigation recommendations and orders that the governor has made,” she said. “But we’re not there yet.”
Giant Eagle employees test positive
Giant Eagle reported on Friday that employees across five locations tested positive for COVID-19.
The company posted a list of stores and GetGo gas stations which were “affected” by COVID-19 cases over the past 15 days.
Giant Eagle stores in New Kensington, North Huntingdon, Wexford and Altoona were listed. A GetGo in Brunswick, Ohio, was also affected.
There are three employees who tested positive, the company said. One of them had been at multiple stores.
“Like other essential businesses, Giant Eagle has received confirmation of the first positive COVID-19 tests among our team members,” a release from the company reads, “and it is likely that in the coming weeks we’ll learn of additional confirmed cases related to team members and guests.”
The O’Hara-based grocery chain also stated that it would close all stores at 9 p.m. beginning Sunday to sanitize and restock.
Pitt summer courses will be online
The University of Pittsburgh on Friday announced students will take summer courses remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“While we would certainly have liked to return to in-person classes, it is not safe or feasible given the circumstances and time frames we face,” Provost Ann Cudd wrote in a message to faculty and students.
There may be exceptions for a few “clinical or field experiences that may become possible later in the summer,” Ms. Cudd wrote.