• County reports two dozen virus deaths, more than 300 new cases,

Allegheny County not planning vaccine proof rules

Allegheny County officials said they are not looking at implementing a vaccine rule, similar to the ones New York City and Philadelphia have implemented, which require proof of vaccination for use of restaurants, gyms and various other indoor spaces.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Wednesday that many organizations in the area are already requiring this on their own, like Stage AE, in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases.

“I think you’re going to see more and more of that ... but at this point no, we’re not yet considering what New York City and Philadelphia are doing,” he said.

In what has become increasingly common over the past month, Allegheny County reported a two-day total of more than 300 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

What is less common is the increase of 26 deaths to the county’s death toll, which the county Health Department attributed to an “import of data by the state’s Electronic Death Reporting System.”

Two of the deaths date back to December, while three each were from February and March. Six of the deaths occurred in April, with May and June reporting three each. The data also included two deaths from July and four from August.

The majority of the deaths were among people age 65 and older, while two were among people between the ages 50 and 64.

This influx of new data brings the county’s death toll to 2,044.

With 345 new cases reported over the past 48 hours, the county has had 106,150 people test positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic.

Following the trend of the most recent spike in cases, the majority of the latest reported instances of COVID-19 were among people age 25 to 49, according to data from the county Health Department.

Week-to-week cases in Allegheny County continue to rise. Last week, 1,161 cases were reported. In the past seven days, the Health Department recorded 1,343 cases.

“The case numbers continue to be high, higher than they were a month or so ago,” Mr. Fitzgerald said during Wednesday’s COVID19 briefing.

Earlier this week, Allegheny County moved into the high community transmission rate based on

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s criteria. The CDC recommends everyone — regardless of vaccination status — wear a face mask while indoors.

Statewide, COVID- 19 cases increased by 2,332 over the past 24 hours, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 1,265,324.

There were 25 new deaths identified by the state’s death registry, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Since the pandemic began over a year ago, 28,018 people in Pennsylvania have died as a result of the virus.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise. The previous Wednesday, 908 people across the state and 120 in Allegheny County were hospitalized because of COVID-19. On Wednesday, 1,275 people throughout Pennsylvania — and 191 in Allegheny County — were hospitalized, according to data from the state Health Department.

County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen noted during Wednesday’s press conference that “very, very few hospitalizations” are among vaccinated people.

The number of vaccinations also is on the rise, though Mr. Fitzgerald said they’d like to see those numbers “go faster.”

Pennsylvania has fully vaccinated 64.5% of the 18and-over population, an increase of about 0.7% from last week.

Allegheny County’s vaccination trends closely follow that of the rest of the state, with 64.4% of the 18and-up population fully vaccinated, according to data from the CDC.