Allegheny County officials: More coronavirus testing needed before businesses can reopen

Efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Allegheny County are working, but more testing is needed before physical distancing measures can be lifted, officials said during a press call Wednesday.

“I think these numbers are incredibly encouraging, but I think it’s too soon to celebrate,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department. “I think the mitigation efforts we’ve been doing in our community have been working. But I want to remind people: We’ve only tested less than 1 percent of all the people in our community. So we need to really increase our testing to know exactly where we are.”

More than 10,000 people have been tested for the coronavirus in Allegheny County, and 904 people have tested positive, according to data provided by the health department.

An additional 26 people have died from the virus since March 14, when the first case was reported in the county.

Daily case counts do appear to be decreasing, with 11 new cases reported Wednesday, 17 reported Tuesday, 19 reported Monday and 21 new cases reported Sunday.

This time a week ago, there were between 30 and 70 new cases reported in Allegheny County each day.

But county officials warned that that success could start to unwind if physical distancing measures are lifted too quickly.

“We still have a lot of work to do as far as dealing with this pandemic, so we have to be very careful about how we go back to what would be some sort of normal operations in this region,” County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said he and local health department officials are in contact with state leaders about how decisions to reopen businesses will be made, but said he could not give a definitive answer on a timeline Wednesday.

Those decisions will depend on how treatments develop and how quickly testing is expanded, he said.

“It’s not just here locally, it’s not just at the state,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s a national issue that we really need to have our national leaders focus on, ramping up the testing supplies, the testing materials, the reagents. We really need testing to be able to make some good, solid health policy.”

Fitzgerald said he supports an order issued by Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday requiring all customers and employees in Pennsylvania businesses to wear masks, but noted that enforcement will be difficult.

“A lot of this is going to be on all of us to ask our neighbors and encourage our businesses to do this,” he said, adding that issuing citations or revoking business licenses may not be practical or realistic.

The order on masks will go into effect 8 p.m. Sunday.