Cases up, no new deaths in county
COVID toll last month deadliest since April
There were no new deaths blamed on COVID-19 in Allegheny County on Thursday, a positive sign just a day after the county reported seven deaths and officials declared September the deadliest month since April.
During the county’s weekly briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Debra Bogen, the Allegheny County health director, said 90 people in the county died of the disease in September, making it the deadliest month since 91 deaths were reported in April.
January and February had the highest death tolls of 2021 with 372 and 163, respectively. So far in October, there have been 36 deaths reported by the county.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health also reported a day-overday decrease in deaths. On Thursday, the state reported 92 new deaths, 19 fewer than the 111 reported on Wednesday.
Since March 2020, Allegheny County has had a total 2,197 deaths from COVID-19. The state has had 29,814.
Despite a dip in the number of deaths, cases have been trending upward in both the county and the state.
In the past 24 hours, the county reported 538 new cases, up from the 471 cases reported Wednesday and the 196 reported Tuesday. The state reported 5,819 new cases, up from the 5,058 reported Wednesday and the 4,019 reported Tuesday.
The county has had 123,702 cases since the pandemic began. In that same time frame, beginning in March 2020, the state has reported 1,464,264 cases.
Age groups
Officials at both the local and state levels continue to monitor how COVID-19 is impacting different age groups.
On Wednesday, Dr. Bogen said nine people between the ages of 25 and 49 died of the disease in Allegheny County since Sept. 1. None of them were vaccinated, Dr. Bogen said Wednesday. In the same time frame, 16 people — 13 of whom were unvaccinated — age 50 to 64 died of the disease in the county.
“These are young people,” Dr. Bogen said. “All of them taken way too early. In most cases, had they gotten the vaccine, they would still be alive today.”
On Thursday, the county reported that there were 73 new cases among children ages 0-12 — the age group ineligible for vaccinations — and 31 cases among children age 13 to 18. The group reporting the largest number of cases were 25- to 49-year-olds with 199 cases. There were 103 cases
reported among 50- to 64year-olds; 95 cases in the 65and- over group; and 37 cases among 19- to 24-yearolds.
The state Department of Health said the number of COVID- 19 cases among school-aged children 5 to 18 years old is 9.9 times greater this year than in 2020. Between Sept. 22 and Sept. 28, 2020, there were 745 COVID- 19 cases among school-aged children. During the same time in 2021, there were 7,352 cases in the same age group.
Vaccinations
Each day, it seems, the vaccination rate in Pennsylvania rises by a decimal point. On Thursday, there was another incremental increase, as the state reported that 69.3% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated. In total, 6,264,513 people in Pennsylvania are fully vaccinated. Based on the most recent seven-day moving average, 25,700 people per day are getting the shot in Pennsylvania.
“The one thing that has not changed, and has even strengthened over time, is the effectiveness of vaccines,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said during Wednesday’s briefing.
He said the county is continuing to see an increase in the number of people vaccinated but that he would like to see that number “come up a little bit faster.”
Since Aug. 13, more than 27,000 additional doses of the vaccine have been given in Allegheny County, the Department of Health reported.
Hospitalizations
On Thursday, the state said there were 3,001 people hospitalized with COVID19 in Pennsylvania. Of that number, 680 people were receiving intensive care.
The two-week moving average of the number of patients hospitalized across the state has been increasing since July 20, according to data from the state Department of Health.
As of Wednesday, the average number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Pennsylvania was 2,758.
Allegheny County on Thursday reported 8,314 COVID-related hospitalizations, which is an increase over the 8,286 reported Wednesday.
Misinformation
Dr. Bogen on Wednesday said “misinformation is literally killing people” and warned against people who are doing “their own research.”
“Reading Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or blog posts is not doing your own research,” she said.
Instead, she suggested reading scientific sources that are peer-reviewed — The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and the morbidity and mortality weekly reports released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Bogen went on to debunk myths about the vaccine, one being that it causes infertility. The COVID-19 shot is safe for pregnant and nursing mothers, she said.
She also addressed the use of the anti- parasitic drug ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.
“Not only does it not work, nationally, there has been a significant increase in calls to poison control and visits to emergency departments for ivermectin overdoses,” she said. “In this case, misinformation has led to direct harm.”
Mr. Fitzgerald emphasized the need to mitigate the spread of misinformation by listening to medical professionals.
“We put our faith in medical experts, not some anti-vaxxer on a TV show or on social media,” he said Wednesday.