Allegheny County covid cases, hospitalizations continue to decline

New cases of coronavirus are continuing to decline in Allegheny County.

The Allegheny County Health Department on Monday reported that over the past two days, it saw 796 new cases — a 10% drop from a week ago and a 44% drop from this time in December.

In a release, county health officials said of the new cases, 621 were confirmed through 3,105 PCR tests conducted from Dec. 28 through Sunday, while 175 were listed as probable. Officials said one of the positive PCR tests is more than a week old. 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.

Officials have long stated that Sunday-Monday case totals are lower because of weekend lulls in testing and processing. However, Allegheny County’s new case numbers have been declining week over week recently. Over the past seven days, the county has seen 6,527 new covid cases — 25% less than what it was last Monday (8,722).

Hospitalization numbers have also been declining, with the state reporting Monday that 406 Allegheny County residents are in the hospital for covid — 25% fewer than one week ago and 50% fewer than on Dec. 18.

Of the currently hospitalized residents, 138 are in intensive care units and 56 on ventilators.

Despite having lower cases numbers than a week ago, Allegheny County still saw the most new cases of the Sunday-Monday period of any county in the state. Montgomery (688) was second, followed by Philadelphia (652), York (561) and Lancaster (525).

The county’s newest covid cases range in age from 4 months to 98 years, with a median age of 41 years.

Officials reported four new covid-related deaths. The dates of death ranged from Dec. 22 to Friday. One death was from December. Among the newly reported deaths, two people were in their 70s, one in their 80s and one in their 90s. Three deaths were associated with long-term care facilities. To date, 1,225 residents have died from covid-19.

The county broke down the new cases — 395 females, 401 males — as such:

Ages 0-4: 14

Ages 5-12: 36

Ages 13-18: 34

Ages 19-24: 98

Ages 25-49: 308

Ages 50-64: 174

Ages 65 and up: 132

To date, Allegheny County has recorded 64,680 covid cases, with 51,719 of those confirmed from PCR tests. There have been 323,240 county residents that have tested negative for the virus.