Allegheny County adds 25 coronavirus cases, total reaches 158

Allegheny County reported 25 additional active cases of the coronavirus Friday, bringing the total to 158.

That’s compared to the one-day increase recorded from Wednesday to Thursday, when the county reported 45 new cases.

That total does not include two Allegheny County residents who have died from complications from covid-19.

The rise in the total number of cases could be attributed to an increase in testing as well as the spread of the virus, Dr. LuAnn Brink, chief epidemiologist for the Allegheny County Health Department, said Thursday during a press call.

“Because the positivity has remained fairly consistent, it’s probably a bit due to both,” Brink said, noting that about 8% of tests performed come back positive. “Although we are recognizing community spread at this point. We do have a few cases that I know of without known exposure to an ill individual.”

County health department officials began releasing some demographic information about covid-19 cases Wednesday.

Females make up 81 cases, or 51%, and males account for 77 cases, or 49%.

The most cases were reported in the 25- to 49-year-old age bracket.

Here is an age breakdown of covid-19 cases in Allegheny County:

• 0-4: 1 case

• 5-12: 1 case

• 13-18: 3 cases

• 19-24: 22 cases

• 25-49: 66 cases

• 50-64: 41 cases

• 65 and older: 24 cases

Of those cases, 25 have been hospitalized.

The majority of people hospitalized are over age 50, “which is not unexpected,” Brink said.

“We will be working with modelers over the next week to determine the need and timing for surge capacity, in collaboration with our health care system,” Brink said.

County hospitals are not overwhelmed with patients, said Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen. Gov. Tom Wolf has urged people to follow his stay-at-home order to ensure hospitals do not become overrun.

The department is still performing contact tracing to determine who infected patients may have had contact with and is recommending self-quarantine to those individuals when needed, officials said in a statement Friday.

More than 535,000 people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus.

As of Thursday, the United States was reporting more cases of covid-19 than any other country.

Pennsylvania reported 531 new cases Friday, bringing the total to 2,218 cases of covid-19 statewide. There have been 22 deaths from complications related to the coronavirus, including the two from Allegheny County.

The most recent death in Allegheny was reported Tuesday.

The victim, Ofelia Rousseva, 78, of Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood, died March 19, according to a report from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The first coronavirus-related death in Allegheny County, a Clairton resident in their late 60s who was being treated at Jefferson Hospital, was reported Saturday.