Pittsburgh: Allegheny County Reports 285 New COVID-19 Cases, One Death

Pittsburgh PA

22 February, 2021

2:19 PM

Description

By PublicSource reporters, Public Source 2021-02-20 The Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] confirmed 285 new COVID-19 cases Saturday and one new death from the virus. The new cases — from positive tests dated Jan. 28 to Feb. 19 — include individuals ranging in age from 11 months to 92 years old, with a median age of 38. To date, the ACHD has reported 74,602 cases, 1,629 deaths from the virus, and 4,749 past and present hospitalizations. The death, of an individual in their 90s, was associated with a long-term care facility. The Pennsylvania Department of Health [DOH] confirmed 2,818 new COVID-19 cases and 90 new deaths on Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, Pennsylvania has reported 911,591 cases and 23,570 deaths. Nursing and personal care home residents and employees represent about 8.6 % of the state's cases and approximately 52% of the state's deaths. Healthcare workers represent about 2.7% of the state's cases. Through Feb. 20, at least 1,931,557 vaccine doses have been administered in Pennsylvania. There are 1,421,115 people who have received one dose of the vaccine and 510,442 people who have received both doses of the vaccine. The state reported Friday that more than 193,000 residents and staff of nursing homes, care homes and assisted living facilities have been given their first dose of the vaccine via the federal Pharmacy Partnership Program. There are also 2,124 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, about 22% of whom are in intensive care units. Nursing home residents and staff represent about 8.7% of the state's total cases and about 52% of the state's total deaths. On Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a fourth renewal of the COVID-19 disaster declaration. The 90-day extension gives state agencies additional support to stage agencies – for instance, enabling the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to assign the National Guard to support long-term care facilities – and lifts some regulations on an emergency basis. "COVID-19 vaccinations have begun, but we are still in the early stages of vaccine administration," Wolf said in a statement. "We will continue to prioritize a safe, efficient and equitable distribution process, and expect vaccinations to increase as the federal government makes more vaccine available to states." The governor's initial disaster declaration was signed March 6. The ACHD reported Friday that it does not have enough vaccine doses to provide second doses in the next week to everyone reaching the 28-day minimum time period between shots. The news only impacts those who received first doses from the department, and scheduling is being coordinated based on the limited supply. Individuals who received first doses at the county's Monroeville clinic on Jan. 25 and 26 will be contacted to register for second doses to be administered Monday and Tuesday. Those who don't receive a scheduling email are asked to call 2-1-1. Individuals due for a second dose between Feb. 24 and 27 will receive emails for links to reschedule their appointments when doses are available. No first-dose appointments will be scheduled in the next week at locations supplied by the health department. The department said it did not receive a typical Friday notification saying that vaccines had shipped, and a vaccine shipment that should have arrived earlier in the week did not. The delay is blamed on weather and a shortage in supply of the Moderna vaccine. On Thursday, the state described the significant backlog caused by winter storms in the shipment and distribution of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The Moderna vaccine was not shipped on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from the distributor, the state said. The Pfizer vaccine was not shipped on Monday and limited doses were shipped on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Lindsey Mauldin, a senior adviser for the state DOH, said in a Thursday press conference that the weather will likely continue to affect shipments of the vaccines to providers for the rest of the week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] is currently working with shipping partners and distributors to resume shipments as quickly and safely as possible. Mauldin said that Pennsylvanians that have already scheduled a vaccine appointment should contact their providers before traveling to the vaccine site. The DOH revealed Wednesday that, over the course of several weeks, providers mistakenly administered as first doses large quantities of Moderna vaccine doses intended as second doses. The DOH received requests for about 200,000 second doses in total this week, a number about as high as the entire weekly allotment to Pennsylvania. DOH officials then realized there had been weeks of misallocation of the Moderna vaccine, designed to be given in two doses separated by several weeks. Pfizer vaccine distribution has not been affected in this way. "Our goal remains getting the extremely limited supply of vaccine to people as quickly and as efficiently as possible," Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said in a Wednesday press briefing. She said the DOH remains dedicated to ensuring everyone who already received a first dose will receive a second dose within CDC guidelines, which set the time frame for a second dose between three and six weeks after the first dose. However, this will involve some level of disruption. According to Beam, 30,000 to 60,000 appointments already made for people requiring second doses may need to be rescheduled one to two weeks into the future, and doses for between 30,000 and 55,000 people with appointments for first doses may not arrive as expected. Beam declined to name any providers who misallocated doses. "We are not here to have blame placed anywhere," Beam said. "In fact, we want to make sure that instead, all of us are focusing on the path forward." This problem occurred because of myriad factors, according to Beam, including high demand for the vaccine, eagerness to administer it, inconsistent vaccine allotment, confusion about the federal government's distribution plan and insufficient communication from the DOH. She described this as "a perfect storm" of factors that "all converged to bring us to the point which we are in today." The Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] is working on a plan to ensure that anyone who received a first dose from the department will receive the second within 42 days. However, people may get some second doses a few weeks later than previously planned, according to ACHD Director Dr. Debra Bogen. The county's first confirmed case of the highly contagious UK variant, reported last week, remains the only confirmed case, according to Bogen. "That doesn't mean that it's the only case," Bogen said. "As I said before, I suspect that the UK variant and potentially other variants have been and are present in Allegheny County. As such, we mustn't let down our guard. These variants spread more efficiently." Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald commended President Joe Biden's administration for finalizing, on Feb. 11, a deal for 200 million vaccine doses evenly split between Pfizer and Moderna set to be available in late July. With the finalization of this deal, the United States is on track to have enough doses produced to vaccinate every American, Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald and Bogen also noted that the county's average number of new daily cases is down by about 15 compared to last week. "What we've been saying is there's light at the end of the tunnel, and that light seems to be getting brighter," Fitzgerald said. Childcare providers and Pittsburgh-based early childhood nonprofit Trying Together voiced concerns to Pennsylvania legislators on Tuesday about the dire need for funding and support from state and federal agencies for childcare facilities to stay afloat during the pandemic. The main concern expressed by childcare providers was the rescinding of necessary funding such as The Keystone STAR Education and Retention Award, which awarded childcare providers with benefits like bonuses and potential pay raises if they continued their education. Many of the childcare providers noted that this funding has existed for more than a decade and for it to be taken away during a global pandemic seems heartless. Lindsey Ramsey from Trying Together emphasized the lack of sustainability from the pandemic relief funds [PRA] awarded by the state. "...Although the PRA is meant to provide $600 of relief to a larger amount of educators, this $600 amount is far less than many educators would receive with an [Education and Retention Award]. In addition, many educators were placed on a waitlist to receive the PRA," Ramsey said. Many childcare centers also said that their employees are refusing pay in order to be eligible for other state funding because it is the only way they can make a sustainable income during the pandemic. Abigail Enz-Doerschner, a representative from the Once Upon A Time childcare facility in Washington, Pa., said the expenses are monumental and it is difficult for employees to maintain a livable wage. "Two of my employees have refused wages because it would adversely affect their medical assistance, rent, food stamps, etc.," Enz-Doerschner said. Pennsylvania legislators that were in attendance at the meeting said they would take the concerns into consideration and present them to their fellow legislators. Sen. Lindsey Williams, a Democrat representing the 38th District of Pennsylvania, said childcare workers are seen as essential workers in her mind, and she empathizes with their situation. "I even thought that you all should have been included in Phase 1A of the vaccination processes," she said. "I will take these concerns to my colleagues because, at the end of the day, the economy cannot run if parents cannot go to work because there is no safe place to leave their children." This article was reported by Annie Siebert, Lauren Davidson, Matt Petras, Punya Bhasin, Danielle Cruz and Dannys Marrero. This article was produced by PublicSource.org, a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. PublicSource tells stories for a better Pittsburgh. Sign up for their free email newsletters at publicsource.org/newsletters.