Report: White House warns Pittsburgh, other cities to get 'aggressive' against coronavirus

The White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator said Pittsburgh and 10 other U.S. cities must take “aggressive” steps to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, the Center for Public Integrity reported.

Dr. Deborah Birx called out Pittsburgh — along with Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans and St. Louis — during a private call with state and local leaders from those areas.

It is not clear who from the Pittsburgh area, if anyone, was on that call.

City of Pittsburgh officials did not participate, spokesperson Tim McNulty said Wednesday.

No Allegheny County officials, including Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, were on the call, and no one in the administration received such communication from the task force, county spokesperson Amie Downs said.

Birx said officials in the 11 cities should perform contact tracing for those testing positive for the virus to help mitigate spread.

Southwestern Pennsylvania, like the other cities mentioned by Birx, has in recent weeks seen an increase in the percentage of positive coronavirus tests.

After weeks of reporting a relatively low percentage of positive tests, state data show that Allegheny County is now reporting 7.5% positive tests for the past seven days — the second-highest in the state, topped by Beaver County’s 8.2%.

At or below 5% positivity is the goal, state officials have said. Anything approaching 10% positivity is cause for concern.

Allegheny County officials during a Wednesday news briefing announced that the county health department would launch a new Covid Field Response Team on Thursday.

The 10-person team will monitor businesses to ensure they are following public health orders.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said the team will start by visiting bars and restaurants identified through complaints made to the department.

Bars and restaurants have been linked to Allegheny County’s July spike in cases.