Allegheny County registered 313 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday as the case count increased and hospitalizations increased significantly.
Reports have not reached 500 cases in nearly six weeks and the county has not reported a day of 1,000 cases in the past eight weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.
The seven-day average is 264 cases, 31 more than in the previous week.
Eleven covid-related deaths were reported on Saturday, increasing the number of victims in the county to 1,669.
That’s 40 more deaths than in the same period last week. Two weeks earlier, there was an increase of 46. Thursday’s figures included 24 deaths, the highest report of the week.
The death dates reported on Saturday ranged from February 14 to Wednesday. One person was in his 60s; four people were in their 70s; five people were in their 80s; and one person was in his 90s. Three deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.
The county has accumulated 76,449 cases of covid-19 since the pandemic began last March, according to the county’s Department of Health.
Of the new cases, 241 are confirmed and 72 are listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or suspicious symptoms with “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The recent batch of samples comprising 1,302 tests was collected from 12 February to Friday. Of these, 121 tests were more than a week old, officials said.
The tests produced a positivity rate of about 18.5%. Cases range in age from 10 months to 91 years, with a median of 34 years.
Ten new hospitalizations have been reported. Authorities say 5,103 people have been hospitalized – 354 more than in the same period last week – since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14. Of these hospitalized, 914 were admitted to an intensive care unit.
One day after the close of February, Allegheny County reported 7,081 covid-19 cases, which is an average of 263 per day – almost the same as last week, but a reduction of about 18 cases per day from two weeks ago.
Last month, 15,559 cases were recorded – an average of 502 per day.
Throughout December, the county had accumulated 25,405 new cases. This represents about 34% of Allegheny County cases. That was an average of 820 a day.
In November, authorities registered 12,608 new cases. December more than doubled that figure.
Throughout the month of October, the municipality registered 3,448 new cases of the virus, an increase of 72% in relation to September (2,001).
According to the secret website of Allegheny County, authorities estimate that more than 71,500 people have already recovered from the virus.
The website counts people as recovered based on one of two conditions: It has been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and survived; and if they have not been hospitalized, 14 days since they tested positive.
Samson X Horne is a digital producer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Samson at 412-320-7845, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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