Health director: Children 12 and under made up 12% of Allegheny County's covid cases last month

Covid-19 cases among children too young to be vaccinated continued to rise last month in Allegheny County, officials said Wednesday.

Doctors have long feared a rise in pediatric covid cases in conjunction with the start of school. That prompted the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend universal masking among school students and staff.

Cases among children, particularly those too young to receive the vaccine, have risen even without adding school to the mix: in Allegheny County, kids 12 and under made up 12% of all cases in August, up from 9% in June. Put into whole numbers, 67 children in that age group tested positive in June, and 773 tested positive in August.

The rise is not limited to children ineligible for the vaccine.

Data from the health department shows that cases among all children ages newborn to 18 have risen since the start of summer: 148 cases in June, 277 in July and 1,127 in August.

Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam last week issued a public health order mandating masks in school settings. It’s a move applauded by Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen, who is a pediatrician.

The order went into effect Tuesday.

“I don’t expect to see an impact on school cases for at least a few weeks,” Bogen said.

Beyond that, she said, whether it has an impact at all “will be determined by the adherence to masking that takes place in educational settings.”

The mandate has sparked protests locally and across the state, mostly among parents, though some students protested at several Westmoreland County schools Tuesday morning.

“We are in particularly risky days of the pandemic for children, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated,” said Dr. John Williams, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UPMC. “Unlike what many have heard, children do get sick with covid, and they can transmit the virus to family, friends and other members of the community.”

Williams, speaking at an unrelated UPMC briefing Wednesday morning, said the health care system is seeing a rise in cases among children but “it’s nowhere near as bad as” the rise of pediatric cases in other states, particularly those with low overall vaccination rates.

“We don’t want it to get that bad,” he said. “One of the key ways to not get that bad is to protect our children with masks and vaccination.”

Allegheny County reported more than 400 new covid cases on Wednesday.

More than half are considered probable cases, meaning the diagnosis is based on an antigen test or symptoms in a person who has been in close contact with a known case. Bogen said the rise of at-home rapid tests is driving the increase in cases considered “probable.”

Forty-six people in Allegheny County died from covid in August, up from 11 in July and 26 in June.