Coronavirus cases continue at record pace in Allegheny County

Allegheny County on Friday reported 869 new cases of covid-19, up sharply from the previous daily record of 773 set just the day before.

As predicted by health experts, coronavirus infections are reaching new highs as we approach the colder season and people shift to indoor activities. Allegheny County has added more coronavirus cases in the past 48 hours (1,642) than in all of May and June combined (1,471).

The seven-day average of new cases in the county has reached 613, while the most recent seven-day case total struck 4,294. Both of these are record highs for the county.

On Friday the county reported six new deaths that occurred from Nov. 15-20. One person was in their 70s, one in their 80s and three in their 90s. One person was 103. Five of the deaths deaths were associated with long-term care homes.

Of the 1,642 new cases reported in the past two days, 1,302 are confirmed from 5,904 PCR tests and 340 cases are probable. Those tests are from Oct. 14 to Nov. 26. Twelve positive tests are more than a week old.

The county has seen a total of 26,821 cases since the pandemic arrived in March, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. Of those cases, 23,038 are confirmed and 3,783 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 county’s daily PCR positivity rate hit an all-time high of 23.41% to bring the overall PCR positivity rate up to 8.29%.

The ages of the new patients range from 3 months to 103 years with a median age of 42 years, according to the Heath Department.

The county has 554 patients hospitalized for covid-19 with 158 of them in intensive care units. There are 931 ventilators in the county and 254 of them are in use, 83 of those for covid patients.

Since March, there have been 26,821 covid-19 cases in the county, 1,931 hospitalizations and 504 deaths reported by the Health Department.

Allegheny has had a total of 254,740 people with negative PCR tests.