County to follow state on reopening

Wolf aims to lift most restrictions on Memorial Day

With Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement that the state would lift all COVID-19 restrictions — except the mask mandate — on May 31, Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen confirmed on Wednesday the county would follow the state’s lead.

“We have followed the state guidance for the last many months; we don’t have our own mitigation orders in place ... so when the state’s are lifted, so are ours,” she said during the county’s weekly COVID-19 update.

The health department will continue to monitor local data and make decisions for the county based on that, Dr. Bogen said.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald called the governor’s announcement “good news,” but continued to urge everyone to get vaccinated.

Despite the county’s decision to ease restrictions along with the state, Dr. Bogen reminded people the pandemic is not over.

“I’ve heard some concern that people think COVID is over as of May 31, but again our case numbers suggest that is not the case,” Dr. Bogen said during the county’s Board of Health meeting earlier on Wednesday.

Allegheny County is averaging 241 cases per day, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard. This seven-day moving average is about 88 cases less than the week prior.

There were 158 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Allegheny County on Wednesday, according

to the health department. This is the first day since March 3 that the county has seen an increase under 200 new cases.

Wednesday’s case counts follow the recent downward trend that the county and the state have been seeing. However, Dr. Bogen said that cases were not dropping “as quickly as I’d like.”

The state reported 2,597 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, which is over 500 less cases than the 3,133 reported on Tuesday.

Since the pandemic began over a year ago, 98,355 people in the county and 1,164,216 people statewide have contracted COVID-19.

The county also reported nine new COVID-19 related deaths, though it attributed eight of them to “an import of data by the state from the Electronic Death Reporting System,” the health department said.

The deaths occurred among one person in their 40s, one in their 50s, four in their 60s, one in their 70s, one in their 80s and one in their 90s.

The state reported 56 new deaths on Wednesday, two less than on Tuesday.

With restrictions easing, Dr. Bogen advised that “this isn’t going to be a one size fits all,” and she encouraged individuals and businesses to use what they have learned over the past year to determine their actions.

The mask mandate will be lifted when 70% of Pennsylvania’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated As of Wednesday, 50.9% of eligible people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

In Allegheny County, about 670,000 residents have received at least one dose, though the amount of people being vaccinated each day has begun to decline. Dr. Bogen said.

“These vaccination rates are encouraging ... but the work is not done. I believe we can and must do better,” she said.

The county will soon be shifting its focus from large vaccination events to smaller community based efforts “to really try to reach everyone in the county,” Dr. Bogen added.

As a way to stop the spread of illnesses, like COVID-19, the county’s Board of Health took up the paid sick leave bill that had originally started in Allegheny County Council.

When the council proposed this bill originally, they had done so with the intent to “improve public health,” according to the full text of the bill.

The bill, which passed council but was vetoed by Mr. Fitzgerald last month, requires all employers in Allegheny County with 26 or more employees to give one hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked.

The bill caps at 40 hours of accrued paid sick time per year, unless an employer decides to set a higher limit.

These provisions from the Board of Health are the same ones that the council had originally proposed.

Mr. Fitzgerald vetoed the bill because he believed that it should come from the Board of Health, not the county council.

“This issue is too important to our community, and particularly to those workers who would have protection in the form of paid sick leave, for it to be done the wrong way,” he wrote in a letter to council, signaling his veto. “If we want to protect our residents, families, community and public health, we must do this in the right way to ensure that it withstands any legal challenge.”

The Board of Health unanimously voted to pass the draft along with a 30day public comment window that would end with a public hearing.

“As the COVID pandemic has brought to light, those who work on the frontlines in service settings like restaurants, nursing homes and childcare often have the greatest exposure and interaction with the public, yet these same positions do not typically have access to paid sick leave,” said Otis Pitts, the health department’s deputy director of public policy and community relations.