Allegheny County reports 66 new coronavirus cases, fewest since June

Allegheny County reported its lowest new number of coronavirus cases since late June.

The county’s health department added 66 new cases, 12 new hospitalizations and one death on Saturday.

The new cases bring the total to 8,160 since the first cases were reported in March when the pandemic began.

Saturday’s report is the lowest in the past 37 days. There where 61 new cases added June 26.

The county has been reporting new case counts in the triple digits for all but two days in July, which saw 5,334 new cases.

The 66 new cases (all confirmed) came from 1,459 test results, with dates of the positive tests spanning July 7-31.

The new cases range from 1 to 90 years old, with a median age of 37. The positivity rate of the new cases was 4.5%, while the county’s overall positivity rate for tests conducted since March is 6.9%.

The county reported the new death was a person in their 80s who died July 29.

Friday’s report from the county added 33 new hospitalizations, but county spokeswoman Amie Downs said that number comes from the past three weeks.

“On Thursday, the Allegheny County Health Department started reconciling data in the PA-NEDSS database with data reported to the department from area hospitals and added several past hospitalizations to the PA-NEDSS database,” Downs wrote in an email. “It is a manual process and is ongoing.”

She noted that the new admissions peaked in mid-July and the number of people hospitalized peaked about two weeks ago.

“Both appear to be declining,” she wrote, “however, there is a lag in the reporting of up-to-date hospitalization data.”