UPMC seeing less severe virus cases
UPMC continues to see less severe cases of COVID- 19 than when the virus outbreak began in Western Pennsylvania in the spring, officials said Thursday.
By a number of metrics — including length of hospitalization, need for breathing machine assistance and positivity testing rates — COVID- 19 patients at the health system’s facilities and elsewhere have not been as severe as they were in March and April, Donald Yealy, chair of emergency medicine, said at a briefing.
“One possibility is the virus is changing,” he said. “We’re seeing a change in clinical pattern. We’re not seeing as much severe illness. I can’t predict what that will mean in the future.”
That possibility has been raised before, by UPMC in July and by officials in other places, although there has been pushback on such assertions. The Pittsburgh health system’s officials noted Thursday that the medical field has learned more about treating the disease over the past several months.
Derek Angus, chair, critical care medicine at UPMC, supported Dr. Yealy at the briefing, saying, “The data show we’re learning how to do things better over time and maybe the disease is changing.”
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania on Thursday reported 1,160 new cases of COVID- 19 — the first time since July 28 that the state has had more than 1,000 daily cases — and 20 additional deaths. Statewide, 136,771 people have tested positive for the virus, with 7,732 deaths recorded.
Western Pennsylvania accounted for 241 of the new cases, with Allegheny County reporting 105 cases — the region’s highest number — and Beaver County reporting 23.
The new cases in Allegheny County break a 13- day streak of having less than 100 cases per day. The last time the county reported more than 100 cases was Aug. 20. According to state health department figures, Allegheny has had 10,549 cases of the
virus since the beginning of the pandemic.
The 105 new cases in Allegheny County come from 1,338 tests that were obtained between Aug. 25 and Sept. 2. Those who have recently tested positive range in age from 1 month to 92 years old, with a median age of 29 years old.
The county is reporting one new death, increasing its death toll to 344. The death occurred on Sept. 2 and was of a person in their 70s. County health officials said that this death was associated with a long- term care facility. Of the state’s 20 new deaths, four were in Western Pennsylvania, with one death apiece in Allegheny, Beaver, Cambria and Washington counties.
Across the state there are currently 530 people hospitalized for COVID- 19, 69 of which are in Allegheny County.
Oscar Marroquin, chief, health care data and analytics officer at UPMC, said Thursday that the care that COVID- 19 patients receive has changed since June as doctors have learned more about the disease.
Although the health system has dramatically increased the number of COVID- 19 tests performed since June, the percentage of positive cases has declined while in- hospital mortality rates have trended down. Among the changes in care, Dr. Marroquin said, were administration of steroids for people with COVID- 19 and more judicious use of mechanical ventilation.
Similar observations in May about the new coronavirus virus losing potency by Albert Zangrillo, head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, drew strong objections by Francois Balloux at the University College London and others, who said there was no evidence for a less virulent virus. A second Italian doctor, Matteo Bassetti, head of infectious diseases at San Martino Hospital in Genoa, supported Dr. Zangillo’s beliefs.