• County reports nearly 400 new cases as infections rise among children,
With cases of COVID-19 and virus-related deaths continuing to climb in Allegheny County, health officials are warning of an increase in cases among young children.
“I wish I had good news to report today. Sadly I don’t,” county Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen said during a news conference Wednesday. “As we know the delta variant combined with the still significant number of
unvaccinated people is driving our trends. And it’s now having an impact on children here, too.”
For the month of July, 25 children age 4 and under were diagnosed with the virus, according to Dr. Bogen. Already in August, the county has reported 67 children with COVID-19 in that age group.
For children ages 5 to 12, 85 were diagnosed with the virus in July. In August, that number is already at 121.
Vaccinations have not been approved for children younger than 12.
“As cases rise among children, so will hospitalizations,” Dr. Bogen said. “To prevent infection and spread in children, people have to wear masks, especially among children who can’t get vaccinated yet.”
School districts around the state have been debating what safety protocols to adopt for the coming year. Dr. Bogen on Wednesday said they should follow guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the same guidance provided by the state.
The county has not ordered a mask mandate or other mitigation efforts in response to the recent rise in cases, although county Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Wednesday that “at this point, everything’s on the table.” He said while there isn’t one specific metric that county officials are watching to possibly move to a mask mandate, they are monitoring all the numbers and will “watch where these trends continue to go.”
Over the past two days, the county reported 377 new cases and three deaths.
With the addition of Wednesday’s cases, a total of 103,646 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Allegheny County since the pandemic began.
Similar to the trends from recent weeks, the majority of Wednesday’s cases occurred among people in the 25 to 49 age range.
In the past seven days, the county recorded 1,161 new cases of COVID-19. In the week prior, it had reported 835.
“We wish we had better news, but we’ve seen a rough week when it comes to the test results,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
While the cases are rising, the numbers are still far below the peaks seen in December when there were days with more than 1,000 new cases and more than 40 deaths.
Allegheny County’s rise in cases matches the trend seen across the majority of Pennsylvania, based on data from the CDC.
The state Health Department reported an increase of 1,811 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing Pennsylvania’s total number of cases to 1,241,843.
The average number of COVID-19 cases per day in Allegheny County has nearly doubled to about 150, according to Dr. Bogen. She said she expects that number to continue to rise.
In addition to the rise in cases, the state Health Department has also noted a rise in the average number of people hospitalized with the virus. As of Wednesday afternoon, 908 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, 120 of whom are in Allegheny County.
A week ago, the state had reported that 563 people were hospitalized with the virus, 72 of whom were in Allegheny County.
During a news conference last week, Dr. Bogen noted that the majority of those hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
Deaths are also slowly rising, although slower than cases and hospitalizations, all of which Dr. Bogen called “discouraging trends.”
All three of the new Allegheny County deaths occurred among people in their 80s, who were living in long-term care facilities, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. One happened in May, while the other two were from July, the Health Department said.
The county has reported five new deaths over the past seven days. In the week prior, only three had been recorded.
Since the pandemic began over a year ago, 2,008 people in Allegheny County have died as a result of the virus.
The state reported 11 new deaths for Wednesday, bringing the state’s death toll to 27,925.
In terms of vaccinations, Pennsylvania’s rate continues to climb slowly. Of the state’s population ages 18 and older, 63.8% are fully vaccinated, based on data from the Department of Health.
Allegheny County’s rates for that same population match the state’s with 63.9% fully vaccinated, according to data from the CDC.
County officials continued to urge unvaccinated people to go get the shot.
“We are really urging, very strongly, if you are unvaccinated, first of all get vaccinated,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “That’s the best way to protect yourself and your family. But if you are out in public, coming in contact with people, we really strongly recommend you wear your mask.”