PITTSBURGH – COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County are rising as the area prepares for a possible spring wave. The Allegheny County Health Department announced on Wednesday that it is now accepting and vaccinating everyone who meets Pennsylvania’s Phase 1A criteria.
According to the Department of Health website, its clinics will vaccinate people aged 65 and over, as well as people between the ages of 18 and 64 (16 for the Pfizer vaccine) with underlying Phase 1A health conditions that include:
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- COPD
- Down’s syndrome
- Heart problems such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- Immunocompromised condition (weakened immune system) due to solid organ transplantation or blood or bone marrow transplantation, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids or use of other drugs to weaken the immune system
- Obesity (body mass index [BMI] 30 kg / m2 or greater, but
- Severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg / m2)
- Pregnancy
- Sickle cell anemia
- Smoke
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus
New registration tool coming
Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald announced that there will be a new registration tool for people to apply for vaccine appointments.
The system will only be for consultations at vaccination sites administered by the Allegheny County Health Department, not for the entire county.
“One challenge we faced was the distribution of the vaccine, the registration system,” said Fitzgerald.
It will be launched next week and will allow people to pre-register for consultations. You will then be notified when you are eligible to receive the vaccine and at which clinic you can get it.
Fitzgerald said this will help prevent people from signing up for commitments for which they are not eligible. It is causing problems in the current system and leading to the cancellation of appointments.
The schedule of online appointments in the current system will end on Friday morning and telephone appointments will end on Friday night.
Early next week, the details of the new registration system will be online.
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Average age of cases falling
On Wednesday, ACHD officials reported nearly 500 new cases in the county in the past 24 hours and 10 new deaths, including a person in their 30s.
“Like what we experienced in June last year, the average age of cases has dropped by almost a decade in the past few weeks and is now in its 30s,” said ACHD director Dr. Debra Bogen.
She said there was an increase in cases among younger people, with a sharp decline in cases among people 65 and older. Bogen said that this is due to the fact that the majority of the elderly have already been vaccinated.
Bogen said the 7-day continuous positivity rate in the county increased from 5.4% to 6% in the previous week. The count of daily cases and daily hospitalizations also increased.
She said there are also 33 confirmed cases of the UK variant in Allegheny County. Less than 1% of cases are subjected to genotyping, which determines which strain of COVID-19 has made a person sick.