Despite a steady increase in the daily number of new covid-19 cases this week, Allegheny County is still seeing 19% fewer new cases than in the past week.
On Christmas Eve, the Health Department registered 912 new cases – 630 confirmed by 1,958 PCR tests, carried out from November 30 to Wednesday. There were 38 positive results in tests over one week.
282 cases were 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.
New cases range in age from 1 month to 101 years, with an average age of 47 years.
While new cases continue to decline, the same cannot be said for deaths related to greed in Allegheny County. There were 53 new covid-related deaths added on Thursday, the second largest such report of the pandemic. The biggest (55) was a week ago.
The new deaths include information imported by the state of the Electronic Death Notification System (EDRS). The dates of the deaths ranged from November 11 to Wednesday, with three of the deaths occurring in November. Two of the people who died were 60 years old, 12 in their 70s, 21 in their 80s and 18 in their 90s. Of the deaths, 32 were associated with long-term care facilities.
With regard to new cases, the total of seven days in Allegheny County fell from 7,150 on December 17 to 5,793 with the most recent report.
Allegheny remains a hot spot in the state. For another day, the county published the largest number of new greedy cases. Only Philadelphia (739) came close. Other high-ranking counties included Montgomery (488), Lancaster (413), Bucks (397), Lehigh (394) and Westmoreland (368).
The age breakdown of the most recent cases – 498 women, 414 men – is:
- Ages 0-4: 14
- From 5 to 12 years old: 29
- 13-18: 30 years
- Age 19-24: 82
- From 25 to 49 years: 340
- Age 50-64: 201
- From 65 years: 216
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports that there are 767 Allegheny County residents hospitalized for covid-19, with 197 of them in the intensive care unit and 109 on a ventilator.
The average number of patients admitted to the county in seven days fell 3%, from 822 last week to 797 in the last seven days.
In Allegheny County Jail, authorities report that there are 38 prisoners in the facility with covid-19; 71 have been recovered or released. Among workers, 71 had a positive result, with 53 recovering so far.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 49,650 county residents were registered as covid-19 cases, with 294,770 negative test. The county estimates that 17,682 have recovered from the virus.
Cases are considered “recovered” after 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and did not die, or if they were not hospitalized within 14 days after the test was positive. According to the county website, “the outcome of people who are not in the recovered case group or in the death group is unknown”.
Chris Pastrick is a digital producer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Chris at 412-320-7898, [email protected] or via Twitter .
Tags:
Allegheny | Coronavirus | Location | Best stories