Allegheny County nears 12,000 covid cases

Allegheny County closed in on 12,000 coronavirus cases Friday, adding 68 new positive residents to its total, the Allegheny County Health Department reported.

With the new cases, the county now has seen 11,995 cases of the virus since the pandemic began in March.

The new cases come from 1,035 tests conducted from Sept. 16-24, with all but two cases confirmed positive. The new cases range in age from 3 to 88, with the median age of 36.

The county announced four new deaths related to covid-19. The deaths range from Sept. 1-18, with one in their 60s, two in their 80s and one in their 90s. Two of the deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.

Over the past seven days, there have been 417 new cases in the county. It’s the lowest one-week count since Aug. 22-28, when 372 cases were added.

In addition, the positivity rate of cases in the county has been dropping since earlier this month. On Sept. 11, the seven-day average positivity rate was around 8%; it’s currently at about 6.3%. The lowest positivity rate in Allegheny County was in late July, when it was around 4.6%.

Among the 68 new cases, 36 were females, 32 males. The age breakdown is as follows:

• 0-4: 1
• 5-12: 4
• 13-18: 2
• 19-24: 13
• 25-49: 24
• 50-64: 17
• 65 and older: 7

On Friday, officials at the University of Pittsburgh said cases of covid-19 appear to be leveling out there as students start returning to in-person class. However, they added that it’s too soon to loosen restrictions.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, there are currently 45 county residents in the hospital for the virus, with nine of them on ventilators. According to the state, there are 820 ventilators in the county, with 184 (22.4%) currently in use for all illnesses. To date, 1,192 residents have been hospitalized for the virus, with one new case announced by the county Friday.

The county’s website is reporting outcomes in 9,059 cases — where 8,679 are assumed to be recovered, with 380 deaths. That makes the recovery rate nearly 96% in cases with an outcome. Out of the county’s total covid-19 cases, there remain 2,936 cases without an assumed outcome.

The website counts individuals as recovered based on one of two conditions: It’s been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and not deceased; or, if they were not hospitalized, 14 days since they tested positive.

To date, 181,355 county residents have been tested for the virus, with 169,360 reported negative — a 93.4% negative rate.