Allegheny County Reports 274 New COVID-19 Cases

Pittsburgh PA

25 February, 2021

4:25 PM

Description

By PublicSource reporters, Public Source 2021-02-23 The Allegheny County Health Department reported 274 new COVID-19 cases and one new death Tuesday. The new cases — from positive tests dated Feb. 8 to Feb. 15 — come from individuals 2 months old to 96 years old, with a median age of 38. The new cases — from positive tests dated Feb. 8 to Feb. 15 — come from individuals 2 months old to 96 years old, with a median age of 38. For the newly reported death, dated Feb. 19, the individual was in their 90s. To date, the Allegheny County Health Department has reported 75,250 cases, 1,628 deaths from the virus and 4,814 past and present hospitalizations. The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed 2,830 new COVID-19 cases and 97 new deaths Tuesday, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 917,848 cases and 23,711 deaths. Nursing and personal care home residents and employees represent about 8.6% of the state's cases and about 52% of the state's deaths. Healthcare workers represent about 2.7% of the state's cases. Through Feb. 22, there have been 2,034,123 vaccine doses administered in Pennsylvania. There are 1,474,479 people who have received one dose of the vaccine and 559,644 people who have received both doses of the vaccine. For the reporting week between Feb. 6 through Feb. 13, the state reported there were 23,492 cases statewide of which 28% had a case investigation started within 24 hours of the positive report. An additional 8% of cases had case investigations started within 48 hours of the positive report. For the week of Jan. 31 through Feb. 6, contact tracers made 7,445 calls to reach 67% of individuals who came in close contact with the virus. More than 31% of cases, or 7,304 individuals, have had a case investigation successfully completed that week. The Allegheny County Health Department reported Monday that it received about 7,000 additional doses of the Moderna vaccine to distribute to its clinics. About 4,700 of the doses are designated for individuals receiving their first dose, and the other 2,300 doses are for individuals receiving their second dose. The health department said it was sending out emails Monday with a vaccine registration link for individuals who received their first dose at the Monroeville vaccination clinic between Jan. 27 and Jan. 30 and are due for their second dose between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27. The links sent out are intended only for individuals due for a second dose at the Monroeville site and should not be forwarded to others, the county said. If an eligible individual did not receive an email containing links, they should call 2-1-1 to register for their appointment. The Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] reported Friday that it did 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. 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 last 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." 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. Gov. Tom Wolf today announced a plan to boost Pennsylvania's economy using a 2.8% extraction tax on the natural gas industry. The administration projects the tax would bring in $3 million yearly to fund the "Back to Work PA" plan, which would pay for worker training and economic development efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We have this resource at our fingertips, and it is the money we need to position Pennsylvania for a strong recovery and it should be used for our collective benefit," said Dennis Davin, secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, during a Monday press conference. Industry and business groups have opposed prior efforts from the administration to fund development with a tax on natural gas. Back to Work PA would also build out broadband access across Pennsylvania to help close the digital divide, and would include an initiative to help the state's manufacturing sector meet the demands of the supply chain impacted by the pandemic. On Friday, 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. 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. 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