Allegheny COVID-19 cases drop slightly

Allegheny County Health Department reported 1,014 new COVID-19 infections for the week of Oct. 13 through 19, a slight drop from the 1,051 cases reported the previous week.

Hospitalizations appeared to increase significantly, with 201 hospitalizations reported to the Health Department this week, up from 10 reported the week of Oct. 6 through 12. But the health department attributed that to a delay in reporting.

“The majority of reported hospitalizations were backlogged data from health care providers and cannot be accurately credited to the week of October 13-19,” the department said in a statement Friday morning.

There were 15 COVID-19 related deaths reported this week, compared to five the previous week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered the Allegheny County community level from “medium” to “low” on Thursday evening.

County officials are still encouraging residents to get the new bivalent booster shot, which targets the omicron variant and its subvariants. Anyone can make an appointment to get the booster at the Health Department’s Immunization Clinic, local pharmacies like Rite Aid, or through their primary care provider.

October is an ideal time to get the annual flu shot, as well, and the two shots can be given simultaneously.

In other COVID-19 news this week, on Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to a booster shot for the coronavirus vaccine from Novavax. The Novavax shot was developed using a more traditional, protein-based technology than the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.