Allegheny County has 12 new virus deaths

State gets supply of drug for severe cases

Allegheny County on Wednesday reported 12 new deaths from COVID-19. Separately, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine announced that supplies of the antiviral drug remdesivir, recently granted emergency approval for use in severe coronavirus cases, had been delivered to Pennsylvania and distributed to hospitals.

A total of 1,200 doses were sent by the federal Department of Health and Human Services to Pennsylvania, Dr. Levine said, and were then distributed to 51 hospitals on the basis of the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at the hospital and the severity of their cases. The secretary said more doses of the drug would be delivered to the state on a weekly basis for several weeks.

“Remdesivir is not a cure for COVID-19,” Dr. Levine cautioned. She added “it has been shown in a recent clinical trial to shorten the recovery time in some people.” Citing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, she said the drug, which was originally developed to treat hepatitis C and Ebola, can reduce the amount of coronavirus in the body.

In a statement, UPMC said Presbyterian in Oakland and Pinnacle Harrisburg are two of the 51 hospitals statewide to receive a supply of the drug.

“The Department of Health considered the patient burden across the state and distributed the medication accordingly,” UPMC said,

noting that each hospital was allocated 18 doses — enough medication to treat three inpatients for five days each.

“In alignment with FDA guidelines, a multidisciplinary team of UPMC clinicians will determine which patients are the most appropriate candidates to receive the medication based on the individual’s case and recent data from the National Institutes of Health,” it said.

No hospital in the Allegheny Health Network received remdesivir in this first wave. Dr. Nitin Bhanot, an AHN infectious disease expert, said this is due to the network’s comparatively low COVID-19 caseload and “other allocation criteria set forth by the state Department of Health.”

AHN spokeswoman Candace Herrington said AHN systemwide — with 12 hospitals in its network, 11 in Western Pennsylvania — has had 131 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with 13 patients currently hospitalized.

In addition to the 12 new deaths reported in Allegheny County on Wednesday — all, according to the state health department, in a nursing home or longterm care home — the county reported 19 new cases of COVID-19.

The state does not specify the names of homes where deaths occur, but no new deaths were reported at any of the Kane Community Living Centers. When asked about the specific homes, Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen declined to give names but said several homes had reached out to the state for infection control assistance in addition to Kane.

Allegheny has 1,545 cases of COVID-19 — 1,468 confirmed and 77 probable — since the first case was reported March 14. The death toll is 139: 129 confirmed and 10 probable. Allegheny’s totals are the highest in Western Pennsylvania.

Statewide, the health department reported 707 new cases of COVID-19 and 137 deaths related to the disease, bringing the totals to 58,698 cases and 3,943 deaths from the virus.

Philadelphia continues to have the highest totals in the state, with 15,376 cases and 904 deaths, and the southeast region continues to see case growth far surpassing the rest of the state.

The rest of Western Pennsylvania saw 25 new cases reported on Wednesday. Outside of Allegheny, no COVID-19 deaths were reported.

Of Allegheny County’s deaths, 109 have occurred at nursing or long-term care homes, nearly 80% of the total. At 35 facilities in Allegheny, there have been 372 cases of COVID-19 among residents and 104 cases among employees.

The county said 285 people, past or present, have required hospitalization. At least 117 people have been admitted to an intensive care unit, and 67 of them have required mechanical ventilation. So far, at least 21,488 tests have been administered.

Dr. Levine reported 4,066 of the state’s cases are health care workers and 12,408 are residents of longterm care living facilities.

She spoke briefly about the state’s plan, released on Tuesday, to expand testing across nursing homes and long-term care facilities. All employees and residents would be tested at least once, she said, then testing would be done on a schedule “individualized” for each facility.

“We do have the lab capacity — finally, now — to be able to do that,” Dr. Levine said.

The secretary also provided a number of updates regarding data collection. The state is asking health care providers to report the gender identity and sexual orientation of COVID-19 patients in addition to sex, race, ethnicity and other demographic information. The system is “completely confidential,” Dr. Levine said, reassuring against concerns that such information could be dangerous if made public.

Additionally, she expressed confidence in the decision to allow Allegheny County to move from red to yellow, praising Dr. Bogen and noting the downward trend of cases in Allegheny and most surrounding counties.

“We will all need to be vigilant as any county goes from red to yellow — to watch and to make sure there’s enough testing, to make sure there’s contact tracing, and I know Dr. Bogen has set that up in her county,” Dr. Levine said.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Dr. Bogen both struck a cautious tone at a separate news conference Wednesday. Mr. Fitzgerald described himself and Dr. Bogen as “nervous” about reopening.

“We’ve got to be responsible,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got to be sure that we continue to practice all the mitigating strategies that have gotten us to this point — that have put us in a position to be able to have so many of our folks go back to work and make a living.”

Dr. Bogen said the county has a plan to scale up testing and contact tracing, and she said the plan would allow the department to quickly bring on more case investigators and contact tracers as needed in the event of an increase in cases.

“We’re prepared, from a health department perspective, to be responsive,” Dr. Bogen said.

Mr. Fitzgerald stressed behaviors like wearing a mask, teleworking when possible, frequent hand washing and social distancing should continue. Public facilities would continue to be closed to organized sports and other large gatherings, he said, and he is “pessimistic” about public pools being open this summer.

Here are the positive cases reported Wednesday across Western Pennsylvania:

• Allegheny: 1,545 (up 19 from Tuesday)

• Armstrong: 56 (up 1)

• Beaver: 509 (up 16)

• Butler: 197 (down 1)

• Cambria: 45 (up 1)

• Clarion: 24 (up 1)

• Clearfield: 31 (up 1)

• Crawford: 21 (no change)

• Erie: 125 (up 1)

• Fayette: 85 (no change)

• Forest: 7 (no change)

• Greene: 27 (no change)

• Indiana: 78 (up 2)

• Jefferson: 7 (no change)

• Lawrence: 71 (up 1)

• Mercer: 78 (up 1)

• Somerset: 32 (no change)

• Venango: 7 (no change)

• Washington: 127 (up 1)

• Westmoreland: 419 (no change)

Here are the number of deaths reported Wednesday across Western Pennsylvania:

• Allegheny: 139 (up 12 from Tuesday)

• Armstrong: 5 (no change)

• Beaver: 78 (no change)

• Butler: 6 (no change)

• Cambria: 1 (no change)

• Clarion: 1 (no change)

• Erie: 2 (no change)

• Fayette: 4 (no change)

• Greene: 1 (no change)

• Indiana: 5 (no change)

• Lawrence: 7 (no change)

• Mercer: 2 (no change)

• Somerset: 1 (no change)

• Washington: 4 (no change)

• Westmoreland: 32 (no change)

Westmoreland County’s fatality data is based on the county coroner’s website. Of the county’s 32 deaths, the coroner’s office said 17 victims were female and 15 were male. All were white, the office said.