• State health officials concerned testing demand has fallen amid rising infections,

State confirms 37 more COVID-19 deaths

Pennsylvania Department of Health officials on Tuesday expressed concern that demand for testing is decreasing even as cases are on the rise statewide.

Exact numbers on how much testing had declined were not clear, but Lindsey Mauldin, the state’s senior adviser on COVID-19 response, said people may have lost focus on the importance of testing as the vaccine effort has ramped up.

“We need to redouble efforts to increase the use of testing even as we ramp up the vaccination process,” Ms. Mauldin said.

Part of that effort includes an extension on a pop-up testing initiative in five regions of the state: the northwest, southwest, north-central, south-central and northeast. The pop-ups appear in different counties each week, and are currently focusing efforts in Centre and Delaware counties.

On Tuesday, the state reported 4,255 new cases of COVID-19 and confirmed 37 more deaths from the virus. In total, there have been 1,049,655 cases and 25,237 deaths statewide.

Gov. Tom Wolf appeared at a Weis supermarket in Cumberland County to tout the state’s vaccination efforts and emphasize that grocery store workers last week became eligible to receive the vaccine, along with workers in the Phase 1b guidelines as of Monday.

“My administration has worked to support our essential and frontline workers throughout the pandemic,” Mr. Wolf said. “And I’m proud that Pennsylvania is now able to expand eligibility to protect the same workers who have done so much to protect their neighbors every day for the past year.”

He also defended the decision to delay opening vaccine access to all Pennsylvanians while some states have made all citizens eligible, saying that by rolling out phases 1b and 1c throughout the next two weeks, the state would avoid a “flood” of signups.

Phase 1c is set to begin April 12 in Pennsylvania, while everyone else will have to wait until April 19 to begin scheduling a shot.

Pennsylvania has so far fully vaccinated over 2 million residents, with more than 1.7 million people partially vaccinated. In Allegheny County, more than 456,952 residents have received at least one shot, according to the state Department of Health.

Meanwhile, the Allegheny County Health Department on Tuesday reported 532 new cases of COVID-19. The cases were made up of 303 confirmed and 229 probable positives. Newly infected people ranged from 4 months old to 99 years.

There were no new deaths reported in the county, which has seen 88,155 cases of COVID-19, with 1,792 people dying from the virus.

More information about COVID19 and vaccines can be found on the county’s dashboard and the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.