Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 526 new coronavirus cases, as recent numbers continue to drop below the 1,000 case mark.
Reports haven’t reached 700 cases in more than a week.
The county has reported nine days of at least 1,000 new cases, but hasn’t posted one in the last two weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.
Thirty-eight additional deaths were reported Saturday, lifting the county’s toll at 1,221.
That’s 135 more deaths than this time last week.
The dates of death ranged from Nov. 28 to Thursday. One death was from November, while 27 were from December.
Wednesday’s numbers included 74 deaths, a record high for the county’s daily report.
Of the deaths newly reported Saturday, one person was in their 50s; three people were in their 60s; 10 were in their 70s; 10 were in their 80s; and 14 were in their 90s.
Twenty deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.
The county has amassed 63,844 cases of covid-19, according to county Health Department.
Of the new cases, 402 are confirmed, while 124 are listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The recent batch of samples comprising 1,655 tests were collected from July 8 through Friday. Six positive tests were more than a week old with one of those dating back to July, officials said. The Health Department says that case is under investigation and has been sent to state officials.
The tests yielded a positivity rate of about 24%. The cases range in age from 5 months to 100 years old, with a median age of 40.
Eight new hospitalizations were reported. Officials say 3,785 people have been hospitalized — 404 more than this time last week — since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14.
There are currently 450 covid-19 patients hospitalized in Allegheny County (down 124 from last week), 145 of whom have been admitted to intensive care units (33 less than last week). Sixty-three of those in an ICU are reported to be on ventilators (13 less than last week).
Numbers for the county haven’t been this low since before Thanksgiving.
Through the first sixteen days of January, Allegheny County has reported 10,035 covid-19 cases, which is an average of 627 per day. That’s on pace for 19,442 cases for the month.
Throughout December, the county had amassed 25,405 new cases. This represents nearly 40% of Allegheny County’s cases.
That averages 820 per day (down from an average of 910 during the middle of the month); during the peak of its surge, the county was on pace to rack up 28,210 cases for the month.
In November, officials recorded 12,608 new cases. December more than doubled that amount.
In the entirety of October, the county saw 3,448 new cases of the virus, which was an increase of 72.3% from September (2,001).
According to the Allegheny County covid website, officials are estimating that more than 21,000 people have now recovered from the virus.
The website counts people as recovered based on one of two conditions: It’s been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and not deceased; or, if they were not hospitalized, 14 days since they tested positive.
Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Samson at 412-320-7845, shorne@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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