Allegheny County Reports 852 COVID Cases In 48 Hours, Warning That Limited Holiday Testing Caused Drop In Cases

Pittsburgh PA

06 January, 2021

7:03 AM

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Public Source By PublicSource reporters | January 5, 2021 The Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] on Monday confirmed 852 new COVID-19 cases in the past 48 hours and five new deaths. Like the previous holiday weekend, ACHD points to limited testing as the reason for the relatively low new caseload. The new cases, from positive tests dated Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, come from individuals 7 months old to 100 years old, with a median age of 40. The deaths, which occurred Dec. 16 to Dec. 20, came from one person in their 70s, two people in their 80s and two people in their 90s. To date, ACHD has confirmed 56,262 COVID-19 cases, 982 deaths from the virus and 3,241 past and present hospitalizations. County-specific information and a statewide map are available on the COVID-19 Data Dashboard. Because of technical maintenance performed Sunday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health [DOH] reported an abnormally low COVID-19 caseload on Monday. By the same token, DOH Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said she expects tomorrow's caseload to be larger than normal. DOH confirmed 4,579 new cases Sunday and 3,226 cases Monday, making for a two-day total increase of 8,992. Unaffected by the technical maintenance, DOH confirmed 56 new deaths reported Sunday and 66 new deaths reported Monday. There are currently 5,529 individuals hospitalized with the virus, about 21% of whom are in intensive care units. Nursing and personal care home residents and staff represent about 9.7% of the state's total cases and approximately 55% of its total deaths. Healthcare workers represent about 2.9% of the state's total caseload. To date, DOH has confirmed 665,097 COVID-19 cases and 16,361 deaths from the virus. Vaccination update Through Sunday, at least 135,044 vaccine doses have been administered. This does not include the individuals vaccinated through the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens at skilled nursing facilities, as DOH still awaits that data from the federal government. The federal government has allotted 166,725 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be shipped to Pennsylvania this week. Of these, 97,500 (about 58%) will be set aside to be administered as second doses for the first round of vaccinated individuals, 30,225 (about 18%) for healthcare facilities and 39,000 (about 23%) for the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens. Pennsylvania also expects to receive 80,000 new Moderna vaccine doses this week. The Allegheny County Health Department added an additional COVID-10 vaccination distribution clinic Monday at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh - Monroeville Convention Center. Previously, the only COVID-19 distribution clinic was located Downtown. More than 700 facilities or organizations have requested vaccination through the county's online form, according to a Monday press release. Vaccinations will only be administered at this time to individuals who fall in the Phase 1A category, which covers healthcare workers. Workers need only be employed in Allegheny County to access this clinic — it doesn't matter where they reside. Gov. Tom Wolf's office reported a new statewide positivity rate of 15% for COVID-19 tests, .1% less than last week. The state also confirmed 40,407 new cases for Dec. 25 to Dec. 31, more than 8,000 fewer cases than the previous week. Of those 40,407 new cases from the last week of December, 3,929 came from individuals ages five to 18. The previous week, 769 more five to 18 year olds tested positive. Still, staggeringly low numbers of people are answering calls from case investigators, who collect data on business visits and prepare information for contact tracers. Only 4.4% of people behind the 53,947 cases reported from Dec. 20 to Dec. 26 provided information about business visits to case investigators. Of those who provided an answer, about 5.7% said they visited a business, the majority of whom attended restaurants. Monday morning marked the expiration of mitigation orders announced in December that temporarily banned in-door dining, extracurricular school events and gyms. These orders were intended to be targeted specifically to control the virus' transmission during the holiday season, Gov. Tom Wolf said during a Dec. 30 press conference. "Our mitigation efforts over the past several weeks have done what they were intended to do, and I thank everybody who abided by the restrictions put in place to protect us," Wolf said. Wolf made clear that there are still several other orders in place that must be followed. "I keep saying, we can't ignore the reality that the virus is out there," Wolf said. "And whatever we do, this is not me, this is not Secretary Levine talking, this is the virus, saying 'I'm gonna getcha!'" Restaurant violations The Allegheny County Health Department has investigated more than 40 restaurants reported for violations since Wolf's most recent round of mitigation restrictions took effect Dec. 12. "In many cases, those violations were corrected upon reinspection, and we thank those restaurants and food places for being so responsive," ACHD Director Dr. Debra Bogen said in a Wednesday press briefing. "On the other hand, other restaurants have become frequent bad actors and have required follow-up inspections and additional actions." Allegheny County ordered several restaurants disobeying the order to shut down, including Al's Cafe in Bethel Park and Piacquadio's Italian Restaurant & Lounge in Castle Shannon. All restaurants ordered to be closed can be viewed online. Fining offending restaurants is an option available to ACHD that is used on a case-by-case basis, according to Bogen. She again implored residents not to patronize restaurants that disobey the mitigation orders. Vaccinations for EMTs and nursing homes On Dec. 30 Levine announced a new order that mandates all vaccine providers, such as hospitals and pharmacies, to set aside at least 10% of vaccines for healthcare providers not directly employed, such as emergency medical technicians. "Many locations receiving vaccine have already voluntarily begun vaccinating these providers, and we are very thankful for their efforts," Levine said during a Wednesday press briefing. "But today's order formalizes this process and works to eliminate any confusion between the vaccine providers and those healthcare personnel in Phase 1A." The county also launched its vaccine dashboard Wednesday, which provides frequently updated information about the numbers of vaccine doses administered by county and also shares demographic information about those vaccinated. Across the state, people who have received the vaccine so far are overwhelmingly white and more often women. Individuals ages 30-34 have received the vaccine more than any other age group. During the first week of January, CVS will provide COVID-19 vaccinations for all residents and staff of Allegheny County's Kane Community Living Centers, if they want the vaccine. Kane Executive Director Dennis Biondo expects there will be enough vaccinations available for everyone who want it. Nearly 70% of staff currently want the vaccine, Biondo said, and he hopes that can be increased to 80% or maybe even 90%. Some people are concerned about the vaccine because of misinformation. For example, some people fear the vaccine could give them COVID-19, which is not true. "Any staff that are indicating that they would not want to receive it, we're going back and talking to them, providing them with those materials and answering just those kinds of questions," Biondo said in a Tuesday press briefing. "If someone says they're afraid they can get COVID from the vaccine, we're prepared to answer that and explain to them that's just not true." The partnership between the federal government, CVS and Walgreens intended to provide vaccinations for residents and employees of long-term care facilities has officially kicked off in Pennsylvania and other states Monday, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. During this first week, CVS will be administering vaccinations at 120 skilled nursing facilities across Pennsylvania and Walgreens will administer vaccines at six skilled nursing homes statewide. In the future, this partnership will serve other facilities like assisted living facilities and personal care homes. "This vaccination process will take some time, and it's particularly dependent upon how much vaccine we receive each week from the federal government," Levine said in a livestream Monday. "In the meantime, our mitigation efforts are more important than ever." The Allegheny County Health Department asked healthcare organizations and solo practitioners on Tuesday to complete an online form to request vaccinations. The organizations must be located in Allegheny County but the employees do not need to live in the county. The county asks that one person representing a given organization fill out an online form requesting the vaccinations. This article was reported by Nicole C. Brambila, Oliver Morrison, Rich Lord, Matt Petras, Juliette Rihl, Charlie Wolfson, Mark Kramer, Jon Moss, Emma Folts, Veonna King, Amanda Su, Kellen Stepler, James Anthony Bell III, Sophie Burkholder and Amanda Hernandez. 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.