2 more Port Authority employees test positive for covid-19; overall count reaches 54

Two Port Authority of Allegheny County employees have tested positive for covid-19 in the past week, officials said Wednesday.

The employees, based at garages in Collier and in Ross, bring the public transit agency’s coronavirus total count to 54, according to Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph.

The majority of workers who tested positive since March — 49 employees, or 91% — recovered from the disease after isolating at home and have been cleared to return to work, Brandolph said.

None have died.

Five workers remain on paid leave recovering from home. Seven were recovering as of mid-September.

The newly confirmed cases involved an employee of the Ross garage who tested positive for the coronavirus disease on Tuesday. The person last worked at the garage Sept. 24.

The Collier garage employee tested positive on Friday, Oct. 2, and last worked there on Friday, Oct. 9.

The agency reported no new cases last week.

On Sept. 25, a building maintenance worker out of a Port Authority facility at South Hills Junction tested positive for covid-19.

In mid-September, three workers at the West Mifflin bus garage tested positive for the disease. All three reported having family members who recently tested positive, Brandolph said.

In the first week of September, four employees who work at the “T” light-rail facility in Upper St. Clair tested positive, days after another employee of the same facility, a mechanic, tested positive.

Cases also have been reported among bus drivers and mechanics at facilities in Ross, the South Hills, Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood and Port Authority’s Heinz 57 Center.

The 54 employees who have contracted covid-19, represent about 2% of Port Authority’s more than 2,600 employees, including 1,300 drivers and 800 mechanics.

“We’re not seeing evidence of it passing from rider-to-rider or driver-to-driver,” Brandolph said told the Tribune-Review.

Port Authority officials remind riders they are required to wear face coverings at stops and stations and when board and riding vehicles. Vehicle capacity limits remain in place to ensure social distancing.

The agency is reporting weekly updates and sharing real-time data on how full buses are during the pandemic at portauthority.org/coronavirus.