Allegheny County reports 246 new virus cases
Five more deaths
Allegheny County on Wednesday reported 246 new cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths due to the virus.
The additional positive cases of infection come from 2,944 administered tests, according to county health officials. Adding Wednesday’s new cases, the county cases now total 5,610.
The new cases are from June 30 to July 14 and range in age from 2 months to 102 years old. The median age is 34.
During a health department board meeting Wednesday, Dr. Debra Bogen, the county’s health director, said that cases reported each day are the newly positive cases that were entered into the PA-NEDSS database, which is usually a culmination of tests from the past one to two weeks.
The county’s dashboard reflects how many cases were a result of positive tests on a specific date, which is why the numbers on the dashboard often differ from the numbers the county reports for each day, she said.
“We are also reporting de-duplicated data on the dashboard,” said Dr. Bogen, meaning that if a person takes multiple tests — and they are all positive — the person is only counted once.
The five new deaths in the county, which occurred between July 3 and July 9, bring the county death toll to 204. The deaths range in age from 77 to 91.
Allegheny County was the only county in Western Pennsylvania to report new deaths. Statewide there was an increase of 26 virus-related deaths, bringing the state death toll to 6,957.
Pennsylvania saw an increase of 994 new cases, bringing its total to 97,665, according to the state health department. Of those, Western Pennsylvania accounted for 391, with Washington County having the second-largest increase for Wednesday with 29 new cases.
Allegheny County health officials said the county also had one additional hospitalization, bringing the total to 478 past or present hospitalizations since the first case was diagnosed in midMarch, according to data released Wednesday. A total of 170 were treated in intensive care units and 79 required mechanical ventilation.
On Tuesday, Allegheny topped 300 new COVID-19 cases for the first time, although the state and county explained that the surge was due to a lag in reporting, not necessarily the number of cases reported in the past 24 hours.
Dr. Bogen, in a Wednesday briefing, said the lag stemmed from a problem with the company — Curative — it uses to report and analyze testing data.
Curative encountered a problem in reporting the test results to PA-NEDSS. The state was aware of this issue, but both the state and Curative failed to inform Allegheny County.
The people who had tested positive within the time frame of the malfunction were informed but could not be contacted by case investigators or contact tracers until this past Tuesday, when the county became aware of the problem.
“Curative uploaded data to the state system yesterday and today without any problem,” said Dr. Bogen. “We are doing everything we can to prevent this in the future.”
Dr. Bogen also noted that the county is looking for local labs to help reduce the turnaround time for test results, as more people look to get tested.
Because of the statewide surge in cases, Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced new restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses. For places that allow indoor seating, they will be allowed to seat only 25% of their capacity.
Here are the total number of positive cases reported Wednesday in Western Pennsylvania:
• Allegheny: 5,610 (up 246 from Tuesday)
• Armstrong: 94 (up 6)
• Beaver: 884 (up 14)
• Butler: 444 (no change)
• Cambria: 143 (up 6)
• Clarion: 66 (no change)
• Clearfield: 96 (up 1)
• Crawford: 101 (up 21)
• Erie: 747 (up 7)
• Fayette: 220 (up 7)
• Forest: 7 (no change)
• Greene: 75 (up 3)
• Indiana: 168 (down 1)
• Jefferson: 41 (no change)
• Lawrence: 207 (up 7)
• Mercer: 203 (up 17)
• Somerset: 86 (up 2)
• Venango: 49 (up 3)
• Washington: 494 (up 29)
• Westmoreland: 1,054 (up 21)
Here are the total number of deaths reported Wednesday in Western Pennsylvania:
• Allegheny: 204 (up 5 from Tuesday. The state is reporting 201)
• Armstrong: 6 (no change)
• Beaver: 79 (no change)
• Butler: 13 (no change)
• Cambria: 3 (no change)
• Clarion: 2 (no change)
• Clearfield: 0 (no change)
• Crawford:1 (no change)
• Erie: 13 (no change)
• Fayette: 4 (no change)
• Forest: 0 (no change)
• Greene: 0 (no change)
• Indiana: 6 (no change)
• Jefferson: 1 (no change)
• Lawrence: 9 (no change)
• Mercer: 6 (no change)
• Somerset: 1 (no change)
• Venango: 0 (no change)
• Washington: 6 (no change)
• Westmoreland: 39 (The Westmoreland County coroner is reporting 33)
Nursing and personal care homes
The state has released data — organized by county — about cases and deaths at nursing and personal care homes. Here’s information about Western Pennsylvania, based on Wednesday’s figures, with changes in deaths noted in parentheses:
• Allegheny: 54 facilities, 591 cases among residents, 195 cases among employees, 159 deaths (up 4)
• Armstrong: 4 facilities, 11 cases among residents, 7 cases among employees, 5 deaths (no change)
• Beaver: 7 facilities, 408 cases among residents, 48 cases among employees, 83 deaths (no change)
• Butler: 11 facilities, 20 cases among residents, 14 cases among employees, 2 deaths (no change)
• Cambria: 3 facilities, 5 cases among residents, 4 cases among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Clarion: 2 facilities, 10 cases among residents, 4 cases among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Clearfield: 3 facilities, 2 cases among residents, 2 cases among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Crawford: 2 facilities, 7 cases among residents, 3 cases among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Erie: 17 facilities, 63 cases among residents, 58 cases among employees, 10 deaths (no change)
• Fayette: 4 facilities, 7 cases among residents, 6 cases among employees, 1 death (no change)
• Greene: 1 facility, 2 cases among residents, 1 case among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Indiana: 9 facilities, 23 cases among residents, 7 cases among employees, 4 deaths (no change)
• Jefferson: 1 facility, 4 cases among residents, 4 case among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Lawrence: 5 facilities, 30 cases among residents, 11 cases among employees, 1 death (up 1)
• Mercer: 6 facilities, 2 cases among residents, 6 cases among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Somerset: 1 facility, 0 cases among residents, 1 case among employees, 0 deaths (no change)
• Washington: 8 facilities, 11 cases among residents, 5 cases among employees, 2 deaths (no change)
• Westmoreland: 18 facilities, 151 cases among residents, 47 cases among employees, 29 deaths (no change)
• Pennsylvania: 763 facilities, 18,384 cases among residents, 3,517 cases among employees, 4,767 deaths (up 55)
For additional information on Allegheny County data, visit the county’s COVID-19 Dashboard. More information on statewide results can be found on the Pennsylvania Health Department’s website.