Pa. records its secondhighest day in deaths from virus

With 349 new COVID-19 related deaths, Wednesday marked Pennsylvania’s seconddeadliest day in the pandemic.

Allegheny County accounted for 74 of the state’s total deaths for Wednesday, but 73 of these deaths were from within the month of December, the county health department said.

“There was a backlog at the state that resulted in the large number of deaths reported in this Daily Update,” the Allegheny County Health Department said in their update for Wednesday.

The deaths in Allegheny County range from Dec. 4 to Jan. 8.

It was not clear if the delay in reporting impacted the daily update for the entire state, or just Allegheny County.

“With these newly reported deaths, December was far and above our most deadly month here in Allegheny County,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, the county health director, on Wednesday.

The county had a total of 509 deaths in December.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services also announced Wednesday that it will be implementing a new, smaller program to support long-term care facilities after funding for its previous program ran out.

Previously, the Regional Response Health Collaborative Program operated in partnerships between the Department of Human Services, the Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and 11 health care systems — which included both UPMC and Allegheny Health Network.

The RRHCP was funded by the Federal CARES Act for $175 million.

“Unfortunately, the RRHCP sunset on Dec. 30,” Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller said in a news conference. “But the need for support has not disappeared.”

Moving forward, the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf leveraged $6 million for the new program, which will cover support through Feb. 28.

This new program, the Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams, will continue the work of the previous program on a scaled down basis, due to a lack of funding, according to Ms. Miller.

“A more limited program was not our preferred outcome,” Ms. Miller said. “A scaled-back program is what we must do to continue the core function of rapid response as much as possible.”

Ms. Miller explained that

through the support of the RRHCP — which included initiatives like universal testing throughout the facilities — long-term care facilities were able to cut their mean number of cases by 60% and the mean number of hospitalizations by 79% after implementation.

“Outbreaks were smaller, shorter and less severe,” she added.

The new program will continue to provide administrative and clinical support to long-term care facilities on how to prepare and manage COVID-19 outbreaks.

The primary function is to help these facilities respond to COVID-19 outbreaks, but it will also assist in personal protective equipment distribution, staffing assistance and COVID-19 testing.

In the Allegheny County report, the newly announced deaths were among people in their 80s — 25 of whom were in that age group — five were in their 50s, seven were in their 60s, 15 were in their 70s, and 20 were in their 90s.

Of the 74 newly reported deaths, 49 have been associated with long-term care facilities.

The statewide death toll is now 18,429, with Allegheny County’s total reaching 1,178. The state saw its deadliest day during the pandemic on Jan. 6 with 368 deaths reported for that day.

The state also reported an additional 7,960 cases of the virus, of which 670 were in Allegheny County.

Pennsylvania has had a total of 741,389 people test positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Among the county’s cases, 383 are confirmed out of 1,942 tests, while 287 cases qualify as probable cases.

Those who have recently tested positive range in age from 7 months to 95 years old, with a median age of 39.

These recent tests were taken between Nov. 15 and Jan. 12; 11 of the tests are more than a week old, while two are from November.

The Allegheny County Health Department is investigating those two positive tests from November, officials said. The department will also refer any labs with “routine delays in reporting” to the state for follow-up investigations.

Since the first recorded case in mid-March, Allegheny County has had a total of 62,439 cases of COVID19.

The state is reporting that 5,204 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, which is “near double the peak in the spring,” health officials said. Of those hospitalized, 1,060 — 20% — are in intensive care units.

Allegheny County is still working to finish vaccinating those who fall under the 1A phase, and since midDecember has received about 115,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Bogen said.

She expects it to take “at least a couple more weeks,” for the county to finish the first phase, due to the county’s large number of health care workers.

“Like all of you, I am anxious to start vaccinating phase 1B,” Dr. Bogen said, adding that the 1B phase should begin with those 75 and older, and those 65 and older who have “specific chronic health conditions” that increase their risk of contracting the virus.

The 1B phase also includes first responders and critical workers. In a press conference on Monday, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said she expects 1B to begin “soon,” although she did not give an exact time frame.