Allegheny County Experiencing Record COVID-19 Positivity Rates

Pittsburgh PA

06 January, 2022

9:38 AM

Description

PITTSBURGH, PA — The COVID-19 omicron variant has caused a record surge in Allegheny County positive PCR tests. The latest seven-day average in the county was 26.4 percent, a figure that county Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen said has never been reached in the nearly two-year pandemic. "Omicron is definitely here," Bogen said at a news briefing Wednesday. "This highly transmissible variant has caused a dramatic rise in the number of cases in Allegheny County...this surge is breaking all kinds of local, national and international records." Between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, the county saw nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. That's four to five more cases a day that the county was experiencing a month ago, Bogen said. During that same period, there were 199 hospitalizations and 41 deaths. Although omicron appears to be less severe than the delta variant, it still has the ability to overtax hospitals. As an example, Bogen said that if roughly 20 of every 1,000 delta cases required hospitalization and there were an average of 3,000 cases a week, that would result in an average of 60 hospitalizations per week. If omicron results in only about seven of every 1,000 requiring hospitalization but there are 12,000 cases a week, that would result in 84 hospitalizations. Bogen noted that the omicron surge has resulted in businesses closing, schools going virtual and hospitals being stretched thin. "The next couple of weeks are going to be challenging," she said. See the entire news briefing here: Be the first to know what's happening in your community and region. With a free Patch subscription, you'll always be up to date on local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe.